XIII. He gets contentment from the
Covenant, He supplies wants by what he finds in himself. He gets
supply from the Covenant

1 . The Covenant in
general

2 . Particular promises in the
Covenant

XIV. He realizes the things of
Heaven

XV. He opens his heart to
God

3. HOW CHRIST TEACHES
CONTENTMENT

I. The lesson of
self-denial

II. The vanity of the
creature

III. To know the one thing
needful

IV. To know one's relation to the
world

V. Wherein the good of the creature
is

VI. The knowledge of one's own
heart

VII. The burden of a prosperous
condition

VIII. The evil of being given up to
one's heart desires

IX. The right knowledge of God's
providence

4. THE EXCELLENCE OF
CONTENTMENT

I. By it we give God his due
worship

II. In it is much exercise of
grace

III. The soul is fitted to receive
mercy

IV. It is fitted to do
service

V. It delivers from
temptations

VI. It brings abundant
comforts

VII. It gets the comfort of things
not possessed

VIII. It is a great blessing on the
soul

IX. A contented man may expect
reward

X. By it the soul comes nearest the
excellence of God

5. THE EVILS OF A MURMURING
SPIRIT

I. It argues much corruption in the
soul

II. It is the mark of an ungodly
man

III. Murmuring is accounted
rebellion

IV. It is contrary to grace,
especially in conversion

V. It is below a
Christian

VI. By murmuring we undo our
prayers

VII. The evil effects of
murmuring

VIII. Discontent is a foolish
sin

IX. It provokes the wrath of
God

X. There is a curse on it

XI. There is much of the spirit of
Satan in it

XII. It brings an absolute necessity
of disquiet

XIII. God may withdraw his
protection

6. AGGRAVATIONS OF THE SIN OF
MURMURING

I. The greater the mercies the
greater the sin of murmuring

II. When we murmur for small
things

III. When men of gifts and abilities
murmur

IV. The freeness of God's
mercy

V. When we have the things for the
want of which we were

discontented

VI. When men are raised from a low
position

VII. When men have been great
sinners

VIII. When men are of little use in
the world

IX. When God is about to humble
us

X. When God's hand is apparent in an
affliction

XI. When God has afflicted us for a
long time

7. THE EXCUSES OF A DISCONTENTED
HEART

I. It is a sense of my
condition'

II. 'I am troubled by my
sin'

III. 'God withdraws himself from
me'

IV. 'It is men's bad treatment that
troubles me'

V. 'I never expected this
affliction'

VI. 'My affliction is so
great'

VII. 'My affliction is greater than
others'

VIII. 'If the affliction were any
other, I could be content'

IX. 'My afflictions make me
unserviceable to God'

X. 'My condition is
unsettled'

XI. 'I have been in a better
condition'

XII. I am crossed after taking great
pains'

XIII. 'I do not break out in
discontent'

8. HOW TO ATTAIN
CONTENTMENT

I. Considerations to content the
heart in any afflicted condition

1 . The greatness of the mercies we
have

2 . God is beforehand with us with
his mercies

3 . The abundance of mercies God
bestows

4 . All creatures are in a
vicissitude

5 . The creatures suffer for
us

6 . We have but little time in the
world

7 . This has been the condition of
our betters

8 . We were content with the world
without grace, and should

be now with grace without the
world

9 . We did not give God the glory
when we had our desires

10. The experience of God doing us a
good in afflictions

II. Directions for attaining
contentment

1 . There must be grace to make the
soul steady

2 . Do not grasp too much of the
world

3 . Have a call to every
business

4. Walk by rule

5. Exercise much faith

6 . Labour to be
spiritually-minded

7 . Do not promise yourselves great
things

8 . Get hearts mortified to the
world

9 . Do not pore too much on
afflictions

10. Make a good interpretation of
God's ways to you

11. Do not regard the fancies of
other men

12. Do not be inordinately taken up
with the comforts of the world

CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT DESCRIBED 'I
have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.'
Philippians 4:11

This text contains a very timely
cordial to revive the drooping spirits of the saints in these sad
and sinking time. For the 'hour of temptation' has already come
upon all the world to try the inhabitants of the earth. In
particular, this is the day of Jacob's trouble in our own
bowels.

Our great Apostle holds forth
experimentally in this Gospel-text the very life and soul of all
practical divinity. In it we may plainly read his own proficiency
in the school of Christ, and what lesson every Christian who would
prove the power and growth of godliness in his own soul must
necessarily learn from him.

These words are brought in by Paul
as a clear argument to persuade the Philippians that he did not
seek after great things in the world, and that he sought not
'theirs' but 'them'. He did not long for great wealth. His heart
was taken up with better things. 'I do not speak', he says, 'in
respect of want, for whether I have or have not, my heart is fully
satisfied, I have enough: I have learned in whatsoever state I am,
therewith to be content.' 'I have learned'-Contentment in every
condition is a great art, a spiritual mystery. It is to be
learned, and to be learned as a mystery. And so in verse 12 he
affirms: 'I know how to be abased, and I now how to abound:
everywhere and in all things I am instructed.' The word which is
translated 'instructed' is derived from the word that signifies
'mystery'; it is just as if he had said, 'I have learned the
mystery of this business.' Contentment is to be learned as a great
mystery, and those who are thoroughly trained in this art, which
is like Samson's riddle to a natural man, have learned a deep
mystery. 'I have learned it'-I do not have to learn it now, nor
did I have the art at first; I have attained it, though with much
ado, and now, by the grace of God, I have become the master of
this art.

'In whatsoever state I am'-The word
'estate' is not in the original, but simply 'in what I am', that
is, in whatever concerns or befalls me, whether I have little or
nothing at all.

'Therewith to be content'-The word
rendered 'content' here has great elegance and fullness of meaning
in the original. In the strict sense it is only attributed to God,
who has styled himself 'God all-sufficient', in that he rests
fully satisfied in and with himself alone. But he is pleased
freely to communicate his fullness to the creature, so that from
God in Christ the saints receive 'grace for grace' (John 1:16). As
a result, there is in them the same grace that is in Christ,
according to their measure. In this sense, Paul says, I have a
self-sufficiency, which is what the word means.

But has Paul got a self-sufficiency?
you will say. How are we sufficient of ourselves! Our Apostle
affirms in another case, 'That we are not sufficient of ourselves
to think anything as of ourselves' (2 Corinthians 3:5).

Therefore his meaning must be, I
find a sufficiency of satisfaction in my own heart, through the
grace of Christ that is in me. Though I have not outward comforts
and worldly conveniences to supply my necessities, yet I have a
sufficient portion between Christ and my soul abundantly to
satisfy me in every condition. This interpretation agrees with
that place: 'A good man is satisfied from himself' (Proverbs
14:14) and also with what Paul avers of himself in another place,
that 'though he had nothing yet he possessed all things'. Because
he had a right to the covenant and promise, which virtually
contains everything, and an interest in Christ, the fountain and
good of all, it is no marvel that he said that in whatsoever state
he was in, he was content.

Thus you have the true
interpretation of the text. I shall not make any division of the
words, because I take them only to promote the one most necessary
duty, viz. quieting and comforting the hearts of God's people
under the troubles and changes they meet with in these
heart-shaking times.

The doctrinal conclusion briefly is
this: That to be well skilled in the mystery of Christian
contentment is the duty, glory and excellence of a
Christian.

This evangelical truth is held forth
sufficiently in the Scripture, yet we may take one or two more
parallel places to confirm it. In

1 Timothy 6:6 and 8 you find
expressed both the duty and the glory of it: 'Having food and
raiment', he says in verse 8, 'let us be therewith content'-there
is the duty.

'But godliness with contentment is
great gain' (v. 6)-there is the glory and excellence of it; as if
to suggest that godliness were not gain except contentment be with
it. The same exhortation you have in Hebrews: 'Let your
conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such
things as you have' (Hebrews 13:5).

I do not find any Apostle or writer
of Scripture who deals so much with this spiritual mystery of
contentment as this our Apostle has done throughout his
Epistles.

To explain and prove the above
conclusion, I shall endeavor to demonstrate four things: 1 . THE
NATURE OF THIS CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT: WHAT IT IS.

2 . THE ART AND MYSTERY OF
IT.

3 . WHAT LESSONS MUST BE LEARNED TO
BRING THE HEART TO CONTENTMENT.

4 . WHEREIN THE GLORIOUS EXCELLENCE
OF THIS GRACE CHIEFLY CONSISTS.

I offer the following description:
Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame
of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and
fatherly disposal in every condition.

I shall break open this description,
for it is a box of precious ointment, and very comforting and
useful for troubled hearts, in troubled times and
conditions.

1. CONTENTMENT IS A SWEET, INWARD
HEART-THING.

IT IS A WORK OF THE SPIRIT
INDOORS.

It is not only that we do not seek
to help ourselves by outward violence, or that we forbear from
discontented and murmuring expressions with perverse words and
bearing against God and others. But it is the inward submission of
the heart. 'Truly, my soul waiteth upon God' (Psalm 62:1) and 'My
soul, wait thou only upon God' (verse 5)-so it is in your Bibles,
but the words may be translated as correctly: 'My soul, be thou
silent unto God. Holy thy peace, O my soul.' Not only must the
tongue hold its peace; the soul must be silent. Many may sit
silently, refraining from discontented expressions, yet inwardly
they are bursting with discontented expressions, yet inwardly they
are bursting with discontent.

This shows a complicated disorder
and great perversity in their hearts. And notwithstanding their
outward silence, God hears the peevish, fretful language of their
souls. A shoe may be smooth and neat outside, while inside it
pinches the flesh. Outwardly there may be great calmness and
stillness, yet within amazing confusion, bitterness, disturbance
and vexation.

Some people are so weak that they
cannot restrain the unrest of their spirits, but in words and
behavior they reveal what woeful disturbances there are within.
Their spirits are like the raging sea, casting forth nothing but
mire and dirt, and are troublesome not only to themselves but also
to all with whom they live. Others, however, are able to restrain
such disorders of heart, as Judas did when he betrayed Christ with
a kiss, but even so they boil inwardly and eat away like a canker.
So David speaks of some whose words are sweeter than honey and
butter, and yet have war in their hearts.

In another place, he says, 'While I
kept silence my bones waxed old'. In the same way these people,
while there is a serene calm upon their tongues, have blustering
storms upon their spirits, and while they keep silence their
hearts are troubled and even worn away with anguish and vexation.
They have peace and quiet outwardly, but within war from the
unruly and turbulent workings of their heart.

If the attainment of true
contentment were as easy as keeping quiet outwardly, it would not
need much learning. It might be had with less strength and skill
than an Apostle possessed, yea, less than an ordinary Christian
has or may have. Therefore, there is certainly more to it than can
be attained by common gifts and the ordinary power of reason,
which often bridle nature. It is a business of the
heart.

2. IT IS THE QUIET OF THE
HEART.

All is sedate and still there. That
you may understand this better, I would add that this quiet,
gracious frame of spirit is not opposed to certain things: 1 . To
a due sense of affliction. God gives his people leave to be
sensible of what they suffer. Christ does not say, 'Do not count
as a cross what is a cross'; he says, 'Take up your cross daily'.
It is like physical health: if you take medicine and cannot hold
it, but immediately vomit it up, or if you feel nothing and it
does not move you-in either case the medicine does no good, but
suggests that you are greatly disordered and will hardly be cured.
So it is with the spirits of men under afflictions: if they cannot
bear God's potions and bring them up again, or if they are
insensitive to them and no more affected by them than the body is
by a draught of small beer, it is a sad symptom that their souls
are in a dangerous and almost incurable condition. So this inward
quietness is not in opposition to a sense of afflictions, for,
indeed, there would be no true contentment if you were not
apprehensive and sensible of your afflictions, when God is
angry.

2. It is not opposed to making an
orderly manner our moan and complaint to God, and to our friends.
Though a Christian ought to be quiet under God's correcting hand,
he may without any breach of Christian contentment complain to
God. As one of the ancients says, Though not with a tumultuous
clamor and shrieking out in a confused passion, yet in a quiet,
still, submissive way he may unbosom his heart to God. Likewise he
may communicate his sad condition to his Christian friends,
showing them how God has dealt with him, and how heavy the
affliction is upon him, that they may speak a word in season to
his weary soul.

3. It is not opposed to all lawful
seeking for help in different circumstances, nor to endeavoring
simply to be delivered out of present afflictions by the use of
lawful means. No, I may lay in provision for my deliverance and
use God's means, waiting on him because I do not know but that it
may be his will to alter my condition. And so far as he leads me I
may follow his providence; it is but my duty, God is thus far
mercifully indulgent to our weakness, and he will not take it ill
at our hands if by earnest and importunate prayer we seek him for
deliverance until we know his good pleasure in the matter.
Certainly seeking thus for help, with such submission and holy
resignation of spirit, to be delivered when God wills, and as God
wills, and how God wills, so that our wills are melted into the
will of God-this is not opposed to the quietness which God
requires in a contented spirit.

But what, then, it will be asked, is
this quietness of spirit opposed to? 1. It is opposed to murmuring
and repining at the hand of God, as the discontented Israelites
often did. If we cannot bear this either in our children or
servants, much less can God bear it in us.

2. To vexing and fretting, which is
a degree beyond murmuring. I remember the saying of a heathen, 'A
wise man may grieve for, but not be vexed with his afflictions'.
There is a vast different between a kindly grieving and a
disordered vexation.

3. To tumultuousness of spirit, when
the thoughts run distractingly and work in a confused manner, so
that the affections are like the unruly multitude in the Acts, who
did know for what purpose they had come together. The Lord expects
you to be silent under his rod, and, as was said in

Acts 19:36, 'Ye ought to be quiet
and to do nothing rashly.' 4. It is opposed to an unsettled and
unstable spirit, whereby the heart is distracted from the present
duty that God requires in our several relationships, towards God,
ourselves and others. We should prize duty more highly than to be
distracted by every trivial occasion. Indeed, a Christian values
every service of God so much that though some may be in the eyes
of the world and of natural reason a slight and empty business,
beggarly elements, or foolishness, yet since God calls for it, the
authority of the command so overawes his heart that he is willing
to spend himself and to be spent in discharging it. It is an
expression of Luther's that ordinary works, done in faith and from
faith, are more precious than heaven and earth. And if this is so,
and a Christian knows it, he should not be diverted by small
matters, but should answer every distraction, and resist every
temptation, as Nehemiah did Sanballat, Geshem and Tobiah, when
they would have hindered the building of the wall, with this: 'I
am doing a great work so that I cannot come down: why should the
work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?' (Nehemiah
6:3).

5. It is opposed to distracting,
heart-consuming cares. A gracious heart so esteems its union with
Christ and the work that God sets it about that it will not
willingly suffer anything to come in to choke it or deaden it. A
Christian is desirous that the Word of God should take such full
possession as to divide between soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12),
but he would not allow the fear and noise of evil tidings to take
such a hold in his soul as to make a division and struggling
there, like the twins in Rebekah's womb. A great man will permit
common people to stand outside his doors, but he will not let them
come in and make a noise in his closet or bedroom when he
deliberately retires from all worldly business. So a well-tempered
spirit may enquire after things outside in the world, and suffer
some ordinary cares and fears to break into the suburbs of the
soul, so as to touch lightly upon the thoughts. Yet it will not on
any account allow an intrusion into the private room, which should
be wholly reserved for Jesus Christ as his inward
temple.

6. It is opposed to sinking
discouragements. When things do not fall out according to
expectation, when the tide of second causes runs so low that we
see little in outward means to support our hopes and hearts, then
the heart begins to reason as did he in

2 Kings 7:2: 'If the Lord should
open the windows of heaven how should this be?' We never consider
that God can open the eyes of the blind with clay and spittle, he
can work above, beyond, and even contrary to means. He often makes
the fairest flowers of man's endeavors to wither and brings
improbable things to pass, in order that the glory of the
undertaking may be given to himself. Indeed, if his people stand
in need of miracles to bring about their deliverance, miracles
fall as easily from God's hands as to give his people daily bread.
God's blessing many times is a secret from his servants so that
they do not know from which way it is coming, as 'Ye shall not see
wind, neither shall ye see rain, yet the valley shall be filled
with water' (2 Kings 3:17).

God would have us to depend on him
though we do not see how the thing may be brought about;
otherwise, we do not show a quiet spirit. Though an affliction is
on you, do not let your heart sink under it. So far as your heart
sinks and you are discouraged under affliction, so much you need
to learn this lesson of contentment.

7. It is opposed to sinful shiftings
and shirkings to get relief and help. We see this kind of thing in
Saul running to the witch of Endor, and offering sacrifice before
Samuel came. Nay, good King Jehoshaphat joins himself with Ahaziah
(2 Chronicles 20:35). And Asa goes to Benhadad, King of Syria, for
help, 'not relying upon the Lord' (2 Chronicles 16:7, 8), though
the Lord had delivered the Ethiopian army into his hands
consisting of a thousand thousand (2 Chronicles 14:12). And good
Jacob joined with his mother in lying to Isaac; not content to
await God's time and use God's means, he made too great a haste
and went out of his way to procure the blessing which God intended
for him. Thus do many, through the corruption of their hearts and
the weakness of their faith, because they are not able to trust
God and follow him fully in all things and always. For this
reason, the Lord often follows the saints with many sore temporal
crosses, as we see in the case of Jacob, though they obtain the
mercy. It may be that your carnal heart thinks, I do not care how
I am delivered, if only I may be freed from it. It is not so many
times in some of your hearts, when any cross or affliction befalls
you? Do you not experience such workings of spirit as this? 'Oh,
if I could only be delivered from this affliction in any way, I
would not care'-your hearts are far from being quiet. This sinful
shifting is the next thing which is in opposition to the quietness
which God requires in a contented spirit.

8. The last thing that quietness of
spirit is the opposite of it desperate risings of the heart
against God by way of rebellion. That is the most abominable. I
hope many of you have learned so far to be content as to restrain
your hearts from such disorders. Yet the truth is that not only
wicked men, but sometimes the very saints of God find the
beginnings of this, when an affliction remains for a long time and
is very severe and an affliction remains for a long and is very
severe and heavy indeed upon them, and strikes them, as it were,
in the master vein. They find in their hearts something of a
rising against God, their thoughts begin to bubble, and their
affections begin to move in rebellion against God
himself.

Especially is this the case with
those who besides their corruptions have a large measure of
melancholy. The Devil works both upon the corruptions of their
hearts and the melancholy disease of their bodies, and though much
grace may lie underneath, yet under affliction there may be some
risings against God himself.

Now Christian quietness is opposed
to all these things. When affliction comes, whatever it is, you do
not murmur; though you feel it, though you make your cry to God,
though you desire to be delivered, and seek it by all good means,
yet you do not murmur or repine, you do not fret or vex yourself,
there is not a tumultuousness of spirit in you, not an
instability, there are not distracting fears in your hearts, no
sinking discouragements, no unworthy shifts, no risings in
rebellion against God in any way: This is quietness of spirit
under an affliction, and that is the second thing, when the soul
is so far able to bear an affliction as to keep quiet under
it.

3. NOW THE NEXT THING I WANT TO
EXPLAIN IN THE DESCRIPTION IS THIS, IT IS AN INWARD, QUIET,
GRACIOUS FRAME OF SPIRIT.

It is a frame of spirit and also a
gracious frame. Contentment is a soul business. First, it is
inward; Secondly, quiet; Thirdly, it is a quiet frame of spirit. I
mean three things when I say that contentment consists in the
quiet frame of the spirit of a man.

1. That it is a grace that spreads
itself through the whole soul. It is in the judgment, that is, the
judgment of the soul of a man or woman tends to quiet the heart-in
my judgment I am satisfied. It is one thing to be satisfied in
one's judgment and understanding, so as to be able to say, 'This
is the hand of God, and is what is suitable to my condition or
best for me.

Although I do not see the reason for
the thing, yet I am satisfied in my judgment about it.' Then it is
in the thoughts of a man or woman. As my judgment is satisfied, so
my thought are kept in order, so that it goes through the whole
soul.

In some there is a partial
contentment. It is not the frame of the soul, but some part of the
soul has some contentment. Many a man may be satisfied in his
judgment about a thing who cannot for his life rule his
affections, nor his thoughts, nor his will. I do not doubt that
many of you know this in your own experience, if you observe the
workings of your own hearts. Can you not say when a certain
affliction befalls you, I can bless God that I am satisfied in my
judgment about it? I see the hand of God and I should be content,
yea, in my judgment I am satisfied that mine is a good
condition.

But I cannot for my life rule my
thoughts and will and my affections.

Methinks I feel my heart heavy and
sad and more than it should be; yet my judgment is satisfied. This
seemed to be the position of David in Psalm 42: 'O my soul, why
art thou disquieted?' As far as David's judgment went there was a
contentedness, that is, his judgment was satisfied as to the work
of God on him. He was troubled, but he knew not why: 'O my soul,
why art thou cast down within me?' This is a very good psalm for
those who feel a fretting, discontented sickness in their hearts
at any time to read and sing. He says once or twice in that Psalm:
'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' and in verse 5, 'And why art
thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God, for I shall yet
praise him for the help of his countenance.' David had enough to
quiet him, and what he had, prevailed with his judgment. But after
it had prevailed with his judgment, he could not get it any
further. He could not get this grace of contentment to go through
the whole frame of his soul.

Sometimes, a great deal of
disturbance is involved in getting contentment into people's
judgments, that is, to satisfy their judgment about their
condition. If you come to many, whom the hand of God is upon
perhaps in a grievous manner, and seek to satisfy them and tell
them they have no cause to be so disquieted, 'Oh, no cause?' says
the troubled spirit, 'then there is no cause for anyone to be
disquieted. There has never been such an affliction as I have.'
And they have a hundred things with which to evade the force of
what is said to them, so that you cannot so much as get at their
judgments to satisfy them. But there is a great deal of hope of
attaining contentment, if once your judgments are satisfied, if
you can sit down and say in your judgment, 'I see good reason to
be contented.' Yet even when you have got so far, you may still
have much to do with your hearts afterwards. There is such
unruliness in our thoughts and affections that our judgments are
not always able to rule our thoughts and affections. That is what
makes me say that contentment is an inward, quiet, gracious frame
of spirit-the whole soul, judgment, thoughts, will, affections and
all are satisfied and quiet. I suppose that merely in opening this
subject you begin to see that it is a lesson that you need to
learn, and that if contentment is like this then it is not easily
obtained.

2. Spiritual contentment comes from
the frame of the soul. The contentment of a man or woman who is
rightly content does not come so much from outward arguments or
from any outward help, as from the disposition of their own
hearts. The disposition of their own hearts causes and brings
forth this gracious contentment rather than any external
thing.

Let me explain myself. Someone is
disturbed, suppose it to be a child or a man or a woman. If you
come and bring some great thing to please them, perhaps it will
quiet them and they will be contented. It is the thing you bring
that quiets them, not the disposition of their own spirits, not
any good temper in their own hearts, but the external thing you
bring them. But when a Christian is content in the right way, the
quiet comes more from the temper and disposition of his own heart
than from any external argument or from the possession of anything
in the world.

I would unfold this further to you
with this simile: To be content as a result of some external thing
is like warming a man's clothes by the fire. But to be content
through an inward disposition of the soul is like the warmth that
a man's clothes have from the natural heat of the body. A man who
is healthy in body puts on his clothes, and perhaps at first on a
cold morning they feel cold. But after he has had them on a little
while they are warm. Now, how did they get warm? They were not
near the fire? No, this came from the natural heat of his body.
Now when a sickly man, the natural heat of whose body has
deteriorated, puts on his clothes, they do not get hot after a
long time. He must warm them by the fire, and even then they will
soon be cold again.

This will illustrate the different
contentments of men. Some are very gracious, and when an
affliction comes on them, though at first it seems a little cold,
after they have borne it a while, the very temper of their hearts
makes their afflictions easy. They are quiet under it and do not
complain of any discontent. But now there are others that have an
affliction upon them and have not this good temper in their
hearts. Their afflictions are very cold and troublesome to them.
Maybe, if you bring some external arguments to bear upon them like
the fire that warms the clothes, they will be quiet for a while.
But, alas, if they lack a gracious disposition in their own
hearts, that warmth will not last long. The warmth of the fire,
that is, a contentment that results merely from external
arguments, will not last long. But that which comes from the
gracious temper of one's spirit will last. When it comes from the
spirit of a man or woman-that is true contentment. We shall,
however, have more to say of this in explaining the mystery of
contentment.

3 . It is the frame of spirit that
shows the habitual character of this grace of contentment.
Contentment is not merely one act, just a flash in a good mood.
You find many men and women who, if they are in a good mood, will
be very quiet. But this will not hold. It is not a constant
course. It is not the constant tenor of their spirits to be holy
and gracious under affliction.

Now I say that contentment is a
quiet frame of spirit and by that I mean that you should find men
and women in a good mood not only at this or that time, but as the
constant tenor and temper of their hearts. A Christian who, in the
constant tenor and temper of his heart, can carry himself quietly
with constancy has learned this lesson of contentment. Otherwise
his Christianity is worth nothing, for no one, however furious in
his discontent, will not be quiet when he is in a good
mood.

So first, contentment is a
heart-business; secondly, it is the quiet of the heart; and then
thirdly, it is the frame of the heart.

4. CONTENTMENT IS THE GRACIOUS FRAME
OF THE HEART.

Indeed, in contentment there is a
compound of all graces, if the contentment is spiritual, if it is
truly Christian. There is, I say, a compound of a great many
precious ingredients, so it is in this grace of contentment, which
we shall say more of in unfolding its excellence. But now the
gracious frame of spirit is in opposition to three things: 1. In
opposition to the natural quietness of many men and women. Some
are so constituted by nature that they are more still and quiet;
others are of a violent and hot constitution and they are more
impatient.

2. In opposition to a sturdy
resolution. Some men through the strength of a sturdy resolution
do not seem to be troubled, come what may. So they are not
disquieted as much as others.

3. By way of distinction from the
strength of natural (though unsanctified) reason, which may quiet
the heart in some degree. But now I say that a gracious frame of
spirit is not merely a stillness of the body which comes from its
natural constitution and temper, nor a sturdy resolution, nor
merely through the strength of reason.

You will ask, In what way is the
grace of contentment distinguished from all these? More will be
spoken of this when we come to show the mystery of contentment and
the lessons to be learned. But now we may speak a little by way of
distinction from the natural quietness of spirit and such a bodily
constitution that you seldom find them disquieted. Now, mark these
people and you will see that they are likewise of a very dull
spirit in any good matter; they have no quickness or liveliness of
spirit in such matters either.

But where contentment of heart
springs from grace, the heart is very quick and lively in the
service of God. Yea, the more any gracious heart can bring itself
to be in a contented disposition, the more fit it is for any
service of God. And just as a contented heart is very active and
busy in the work of God, so he is very active and busy in
sanctifying God's name in the affliction that befalls
him.

The difference is very clear: The
one whose disposition is quiet is not disquieted as others are,
but neither does he show any activeness of spirit to sanctify the
name of God in his affliction. But, on the other hand, he whose
contentment is of grace is not disquieted and keeps his heart
quiet with regard to vexation and trouble, and at the same time is
not dull or heavy but very active to sanctify God's name in the
affliction that he is experiencing.

For if a man is to be free from
discontent and worry it is not enough merely not to murmur but you
must be active in sanctifying God's name in the affliction.
Indeed, this will distinguish it from a sturdy resolution not to
be troubled. Though you have a sturdy resolution that you will not
be troubled, do you make it a matter of conscience to sanctify
God's name in your affliction and is this where your resolution
comes from? That is the main thing that brings quietness of heart
and helps against discontent in a gracious heart. I say, the
desire and care your soul has to sanctify God's name in an
affliction is what quietens the soul, and this is what others
lack.

A quietness which comes form reason
only does not do this either. It is said of Socrates that, though
he were only a heathen, he would never so much as change his
countenance whatever befell him, and he got this power over his
spirit merely by the strength of reason and morality. But gracious
contentment comes from principles beyond the strength of reason. I
cannot develop that until we come to unfold the mystery of
spiritual contentment.

I will give you just one mark of the
difference between a man or woman who is content in a natural way
and one who is contention a spiritual way: Those who are content
in a natural way overcome themselves when outward afflictions
befall them and are content. They are just as content when they
commit sin against God. When they have outward crosses or when God
is dishonored, it is all one to them; whether they themselves are
crossed or whether God is crossed. But a gracious heart that is
contented with its own affliction, will rise up strongly when God
is dishonored.

5. THE FIFTH CHARACTERISTIC IS
CONTENTMENT IS FREELY SUBMITTING TO AND TAKING PLEASURE IN GOD'S
DISPOSAL.

It is a free work of the spirit.
There are four things to be explained in this freedom of spirit:
1. That the heart is readily brought over. When someone does a
thing freely, he does not need a lot of moving to get him to do
it. Many men and women, when afflictions are heavy upon them, may
be brought to a state of contentment with great ado. At last,
perhaps, they may be brought to quiet their hearts in their
affliction, but only with a great deal of trouble, and not at all
freely. If I desire a thing of someone else and I get it with much
ado and a great deal of trouble, there is no freedom of spirit
here. When a man is free in a thing, only mention it and
immediately he does it. So if you have learned this art of
contentment you will not only be content and quiet your hearts
after a great ado, but as soon as you come to see that it is the
hand of God your heart acts readily and closes at once.

2. It is freely, that is, not by
constraint. Not, as we say, patience by force.

Thus many will say that you must be
content: 'This is the hand of God and you cannot help it.' Oh, but
this is too low an expression for Christians.

Yet when Christians come to visit
one another, they say, 'Friend (or neighbor), you must be
content.' Must be content is too low for a Christian.

No, it should be, 'Readily and
freely I will be content.' It is suitable to my heart to yield to
God and to be content. I find it a thing that comes naturally that
my soul should be content. Oh, you should answer your friends so
who come and tell you that you must be content: No, I am willing
to yield to God, and I am freely content. That is the second point
about freedom of spirit. Now a free act comes in a rational
manner. That is freedom; it does not come through ignorance,
because I know of no better condition or because I do not know why
my affliction is, but it comes through a sanctified judgment. That
is why no creature but a rational creature can do an act of
freedom. Liberty of action is only in rational creatures and comes
from hence, for that is only freedom that is done in a rational
way. Natural freedom is when I, by my judgment, see what is to be
done, understand the thing, and my judgment agrees with what I
understand: that is done freely.

But if a man does something, not
understanding what he is doing, he cannot be said to do it freely.
Suppose a child was born in prison and never went outside of it.
He is content, but why? Because he never knew anything better. His
being content is not a free act. But for men and women who know
better, who know that the condition they are in is an afflicted
and sad condition, and still by a sanctified judgment can bring
their hearts to contentment-this is freedom.

3. This freedom is in opposition to
mere stupidity. A man or woman may be contented merely from lack
of sense. This is not free, any more than a man who is paralysed
in a deadly way and does not feel it when you nip him is patient
freely. But if someone should have their flesh pinched and feel
it, and yet for all that can control themselves and do it freely,
that is another matter. So it is here: many are contented out of
mere stupidity. They have a dead paralysis upon them. But a
gracious heart has sense enough, and yet is contented, and
therefore is free.

6. CONTENTMENT IS FREELY SUBMITTING
TO AND TAKING PLEASURE IN GOD'S DISPOSAL.

Submitting to God's disposal-What is
that? The word submit signifies nothing else but 'to send under'.
Thus in one who is discontented the heart will be unruly, and
would even get above God so far as discontent prevails.

But now comes the grace of
contentment and sends it under, for to submit is to send under a
thing. Now when the soul comes to see its own unruliness-Is the
hand of God bringing an affliction and yet my heart is troubled
and discontented-What, it says, will you be above God? Is this not
God's hand and must your will be regarded more than God's? O
under, under! get you under, O soul! Keep under! keep low! keep
under God's feet! You are under God's feet, and keep under his
feet! Keep under the authority of God, the majesty of God, the
sovereignty of God, the power that God has over you! To keep
under, that is to submit. The soul can submit to God at the time
when it can send itself under the power and authority and
sovereignty and dominion that God has over it. That is the sixth
point, but even that is not enough. You have not attained this
grace of contentment unless the next point is true of
you.

7. CONTENTMENT IS TAKING PLEASURE IN
GOD'S DISPOSAL.

This is so when I am well pleased in
what God does, in so far as I can see God in it, though, as I
said, I may be sensible of the affliction, and may desire that God
in his due time would remove it, and may use means to remove it.
Yet I am well pleased in so far as God's hand is in it. To be well
pleased with God's hand is a higher degree than the previous one.
It comes from this: not only do I see that I should be content in
this affliction, but I see that there is good in it. I find there
is honey in this rock, and so I do not only say, I must, or I will
submit to God's hand. No, the hand of God is good, 'it is good
that I am afflicted.' To acknowledge that it is just that I am
afflicted is possible in one who is not truly contented. I may be
convinced that God deals justly in this matter, he is righteous
and just and it is right that I should submit to what he has done;
O the Lord has done righteously in all ways! But that is not
enough! You must say, 'Good is the hand of the Lord.' It was the
expression of old Eli: 'Good is the hand of the Lord,' when it was
a sore and hard word. It was a word that threatened very grievous
things to Eli and his house, and yet Eli says, 'Good is the word
of the Lord.' Perhaps, some of you may say, like David, 'It is
good that I was afflicted', but you must come to this, 'It is good
that I am afflicted.' Not just good when you see the good fruit it
has wrought, but to say when you are afflicted, 'It is good that I
am afflicted. Whatever the affliction, yet through the mercy of
God mine is a good condition.' It is, indeed, the top and the
height of this art of contentment to come to this pitch and to be
able to say, 'Well, my condition and afflictions are so and so,
and very grievous and sore; yet, through God's mercy, I am in a
good condition, and the hand of God is good upon me
notwithstanding.' I should have given you several Scriptures about
this, but I will give you one or two, which are very striking. You
will think it is a hard lesson to come so far as not only to be
quiet but to take pleasure in affliction.

'In the house of the righteous is
much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble'
(Proverbs 15:6): here is a Scripture to show that a gracious heart
has cause to say that it is in a good condition, whatever it is.
In the house of the righteous is much treasure; his house-what
house? It may be a poor cottage, and perhaps he has scarcely a
stool to sit on. Perhaps he is forced to sit on a stump of wood or
part of a block instead of a stool, or perhaps he has scarcely a
bed to lie on, or a dish to eat in. Yet the Holy Ghost says, 'In
the house of the righteous is much treasure.' Let the righteous
man be the poorest man in the world-it may be that someone has
come and taken all the goods from out of his house for debt.
Perhaps his house is plundered and all is gone; yet still, 'In the
house of the righteous is much treasure.' The righteous man can
never be made so poor, to have his house so rifled and spoiled,
but there will remain much treasure within. If he has but a dish
or a spoon or anything in the world in his house, there will be
much treasure so long as he is there. There is the presence of God
and the blessing of God upon him, and therein is much treasure.
But in the revenues of the wicked there is trouble. There is more
treasure in the poorest body's house, if he is godly, than in the
house of the greatest man in the world, who has his fine hangings
and finely-wrought beds and chairs and couches and cupboards of
plate and the like. Whatever he has, he has not so much treasure
in it as there is in the house of the poorest righteous
soul.

It is no marvel, therefore, that
Paul was content, for a verse or two after my text you read: 'But
I have all and abound. I am full' (Philippians 4:18). I have all?
Alas, poor man! what did Paul have that could make him say he had
all? Where was there ever a man more afflicted than Paul was? Many
times he had not tatters to hang about his body to cover his
nakedness. He had no bread to eat, he was often in nakedness, and
put in the stocks and whipped and cruelly used, 'Yet I have all',
says Paul, for all that. Yes, you will find it in 2 Corinthians:
He professes there that he did possess all things: 'As sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having
nothing, and yet possessing all things' (2 Corinthians
6:10).

Mark what he says-it is, 'as having
nothing' but it is 'possessing all things'. He does not say: 'As
possessing all things', but 'possessing all things'. I have very
little in the world, he says, but yet possessing all things. So
you see that a Christian has cause to take pleasure in God's hand,
whatever his hand may be.

That is to say, the soul that has
learned this lesson of contentment looks up to God in all things.
He does not look down at the instruments and means, so as to say
that such a man did it, that it was the unreasonableness of such
and such instruments, and similar barbarous usage by such and
such; but he looks up to God. A contented heart looks to God's
disposal, and submits to God's disposal, that is, he sees the
wisdom of God in everything. In his submission he sees his
sovereignty, but what makes him take pleasure is God's wisdom. The
Lord knows how to order things better than I. The Lord sees
further than I do; I only see things at present but the Lord sees
a great while from now. And how do I know but that had it not been
for this affliction, I should have been undone. I know that the
love of God may as well stand with an afflicted condition as with
a prosperous condition. There are reasonings of this kind in a
contented spirit, submitting to the disposal of God.

9. THE LAST THING IS, THIS IS IN
EVERY CONDITION.

Now we shall enlarge on this a
little.

1. SUBMITTING TO GOD IN WHATEVER
AFFLICTION BEFALLS US: AS TO THE KIND OF AFFLICTION.

2. AS TO THE TIME AND CONTINUANCE OF
THE AFFLICTION.

3. AS TO THE VARIETY AND CHANGES OF
AFFLICTION: WHATEVER THEY ARE, YET THERE MUST BE A SUBMISSION TO
GOD'S DISPOSAL IN EVERY CONDITION.

1. As to the kind of affliction.
Many men and women will in general say that they must submit to
God in affliction; I suppose that if you were to go now from one
end of this congregation to the other, and speak thus to every
soul: 'Would you not submit to God's disposal, in whatever
condition he might place you?', you would say, 'God forbid that it
should be otherwise!' But we have a saying, There is a great deal
of deceit in general statements. In general, you would submit to
anything; but what if it is in this or that particular case which
crosses you most?-Then, anything but that! We are usually apt to
think that any condition is better than that condition in which
God has placed us. Now, this is not contentment; it should be not
only to any condition in general, but for the kind of affliction,
including that which most crosses you. God, it may be, strikes you
in your child.-'Oh, if it had been in my possessions' you say, 'I
would be content!' Perhaps he strikes you in your marriage. 'Oh,'
you say, 'I would rather have been stricken in my health.' And if
he had struck you in your health-'Oh, then, if it had been in my
trading, I would not have cared.' But we must not be our own
carvers. Whatever particular afflictions God may place us in, we
must be content in them.

2. There must be a submission to God
in every affliction, as to the time and continuance of the
affliction. 'Perhaps I could submit and be content', says someone,
'but this affliction has been on me a long time, three months, a
year, many years, and I do not know how to yield and submit to it,
my patience is worn out and broken.' I may even be a spiritual
affliction-you could submit to God, you say, in any outward
affliction, but not in a soul-affliction.

Or if it were the withdrawing of
God's face-'Yet if this had been but for a little time I could
submit; but to seek God for so long and still he does not appear,
Oh how shall I bear this?' We must not be our own disposers for
the time of deliverance any more than for the kind and way of
deliverance.

I will give you a Scripture or two
about this. That we are to submit to God for the time as well as
the kind of affliction, see the latter end of the first chapter of
Ezekiel: 'When I saw it I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice
of one that spake.' The Prophet was cast down upon his face, but
how long must he lie upon his face? 'And he said unto me, Son of
man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee. And the
spirit entered into me, when he spake unto me, and set me upon my
feet.' Ezekiel was cast down upon his face, and there he must lie
till God should bid him to stand up; yea, and not only so, but
till God's Spirit came into him and enabled him to stand up. So
when God casts us down, we must be content to lie till God bids us
stand up, and God's Spirit enters into us to enable us to stand
up. You know how Noah was put into the Ark-certainly he knew there
was much affliction in the Ark, with all kinds of creatures shut
up with him for twelve months together-it was a mighty thing, yet
God having shut him up, even though the waters were assuaged, Noah
was not to come out of the Ark till God bid him. So though we be
shut up in great afflictions, and we may think of this and that
and the other means to come out of that affliction, yet till God
opens the door, we should be willing to stay; God has put us in,
and God will bring us out. So we read in the Acts of Paul, when
they had shut him in prison and would have sent for him out; 'No',
says Paul, 'they shut us in, let them come and fetch us out.' So
in a holy, gracious way should a soul say, 'Well, this affliction
that I am brought into, is by the hand of God, and I am content to
be here till God brings me out himself.' God requires it at our
hands, that we should not be willing to come out till he comes and
fetches us out.

In Joshua 4:10 there is a remarkable
story that may serve our purpose very well: We read of the priests
that they bore the ark and stood in the midst of Jordan (you know
when the Children of Israel went into the land of Canaan they went
through the river Jordan). Now to go through the river Jordan was
a very dangerous thing, but God had told them to go. They might
have been afraid of the water coming in upon them. But mark, it is
said, 'The priests that bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan
till every thing was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to
speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded
Joshua, and the people hasted and passed over: And it came to pass
when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the
Lord passed over, and the priests in the presence of the people.'
Now it was God's disposal that all the people should pass over
first, that they should be safe on land; but the priests must
stand still till all the people had passed over, and then they
must have leave to go. But they must stay till God would have them
to go, stay in all that danger! For certainly, to reason and
sense, there was a great deal of danger in staying, for the text
says that the people hasted over, but the priests they must stay
till the people have gone, stay till God calls them out from that
place of danger. And so many times it proves the case that God is
pleased to dispose of things so that his ministers must stay
longer in danger than the people, and likewise magistrates and
those in public places, which should make people to be satisfied
and contented with a lower position into which God has put them.
Though your position is low, yet you are not in the same danger as
those who are in a higher position. God calls those in public
positions to stand longer in the gap and place of danger than
other people, but we must be content to stay even in Jordan till
the Lord shall be pleased to call us out.

3. And then for the variety of our
condition. We must be content with the particular affliction, and
the time, and all the circumstances about the affliction-for
sometimes the circumstances are greater afflictions than the
afflictions themselves-and for the variety. God may exercise us
with various afflictions one after another, as has been very
noticeable, even of late, that many who have been plundered and
come away, afterwards have fallen sick and died; they had fled for
their lives and afterwards the plague has come among them; and if
not that affliction, it may be some other. It is very rarely that
one affliction comes alone; commonly, afflictions are not single
things, but they come one upon the neck of another. God may strike
one man in his possessions, then in his body, then in his name,
wife, child or dear friend, and so it comes in a variety of ways;
it is the way of God ordinarily (you may find it by experience)
that one affliction seldom comes alone. Now this is hard, when one
affliction follows after another, when there is a variety of
afflictions, when there is a mighty change in one's condition, up
and down, this way, and that: there indeed is the trial of a
Christian. Now there must be submission to God's disposal in them.
I remember it was said even of Cato, who was a Heathen, that no
man saw him to be changed, though he lived in a time when the
commonwealth was so often changed; yet it is said of him, he was
the same still, though his condition was changed, and he passed
through a variety of conditions. Oh that the same could be said of
many Christians, that though their circumstances are changed, yet
that nobody could see them changed, they are the same! Did you see
what a gracious, sweet and holy temper they were in before? They
are in it still. Thus are we to submit to the disposal of God in
every condition.

Contentment is the inward, quiet,
gracious frame of spirit, freely submitting to and taking pleasure
in God's disposal in every condition: That is the description, and
in it nine distinct things have been opened up which we summarize
as follows: First, that contentment is a heart-work within the
soul; Secondly, it is the quieting of the heart; Thirdly, it is
the frame of the spirit; Fourthly, it is a gracious frame;
Fifthly, it is the free working of this gracious frame; Sixthly,
there is in it a submission to God, sending the soul under God;
Seventhly, there is a taking pleasure in the hand of God;
Eighthly, all is traced to God's disposal; Ninthly, in every
condition, however hard it be and however long it
continue.

Now those of you who have learned to
be content, have learned to attain to these various things. I hope
that the very opening of these things may so far work on your
hearts that you may lay your hands upon your hearts on what has
been said, I say, that the very telling you what the lesson is may
cause you to lay your hands on your hearts and say, 'Lord, I see
there is more to Christian contentment than I thought there was,
and I have been far from learning this lesson. Indeed, I have only
learned my ABC in this lesson of contentment. I am only in the
lower form in Christ's school if I am in it at all.' We shall
speak of these things more later, but my particular aim in opening
this point is to show what a great mystery there is in Christian
contentment, and how many distinct lessons there are to be
learned, that we may come to attain to this heavenly disposition,
to which St. Paul attained.

2. THE MYSTERY OF CONTENTMENT But
you will object: What you speak of is very good, if we could
attain to it; but is it possible for anyone to attain to this? It
is possible if you get skill in the art of it; you may attain to
it, and it will prove to be not such a difficult thing either, if
you but understand the mystery of it. There are many things that
men do in their callings, that if a countryman comes and sees, he
thinks it a mighty hard thing, and that he should never be able to
do it. But that is because he does not understand the art of it;
there is a twist of the hand by which you may do it with ease. Now
that is the business of this book, to open to you the art and
mystery of contentment.

There is a great mystery and art in
what way a Christian comes to contentment. By what has been
already opened to you there will appear some mystery and art, as
that a man should be content with his affliction, and yet
thoroughly sensible of his affliction too; to be thoroughly
sensible of an affliction, and to endeavor to remove it by all
lawful means, and yet to be content: there is a mystery in that.
How to join these two together: to be sensible of an affliction as
much as a man or woman who is not content; I am sensible of it as
fully as they, and I seek ways to be delivered from it as well as
they, and yet still my heart abides content-this is, I say, a
mystery, that is very hard for a carnal heart to understand. But
grace teaches such a mixture, teaches us how to make a mixture of
sorrow and a mixture of joy together; and that makes contentment,
the mingling of joy and sorrow, of gracious joy and gracious
sorrow together. Grace teaches us how to moderate and to order an
affliction so that there shall be a sense of it, and yet for all
that contentment under it.

There are several things for opening
the mystery of contentment.

1. THE FIRST THING IS, TO SHOW THAT
THERE IS A GREAT MYSTERY IN IT.

It may be said of one who is
contented in a Christian way that he is the most contented man in
the world, and yet the most unsatisfied man in the world; these
two together must needs be mysterious. I say, a contented man,
just as he is the most contented, so he is the most unsatisfied
man in the world.

You never learned the mystery of
contentment unless it may be said of you that, just as you are the
most contented man, so you are also the most unsatisfied man in
the world.

You will say, 'How is that?' A man
who has learned the art of contentment is the most contented with
any low condition that he has in the world, and yet he cannot be
satisfied with the enjoyment of all the world. He is contented if
he has but a crust, but bread and water, that is, if God disposes
of him, for the things of the world, to have but bread and water
for his present condition, he can be satisfied with God's disposal
in that; yet if God should give unto him Kingdoms and Empires, all
the world to rule, if he should give it him for his portion, he
would not be satisfied with that. Here is the mystery of it:
though his heart is so enlarged that the enjoyment of all the
world and ten thousand worlds cannot satisfy him for his portion;
yet he has a heart quieted under God's disposal, if he gives him
but bread and water. To join these two together must needs be a
great art and mystery.

Though he is contented with God in a
little, yet those things that would content other men will not
content him. The men of the world seek after wealth, and think if
they had thus much, and thus much, they would be content. They do
not aim at great things; but if I had, perhaps some man thinks,
only two or three hundred a year, then I should be well enough; if
I had but a hundred a year, or a thousand a year, says another,
then I should be satisfied. But a gracious heart says that if he
had ten hundred thousand times so much a year, it would not
satisfy him; if he had the quintessence of all the excellences of
all the creatures in the world, it could not satisfy him; and yet
this man can sing, and be merry and joyful when he has only a
crust of bread and a little water in the world. Surely religion is
a great mystery! Great is the mystery of godliness, not only in
the doctrinal part of it, but in the practical part of it
also.

Godliness teaches us this mystery,
Not to be satisfied with all the world for our portion, and yet to
be content with the meanest condition in which we are. When Luther
was sent great gifts by Dukes and Princes, he refused them, and he
says, 'I did vehemently protest that God should not put me off so;
'tis not that which will content me.' A little in the world will
content a Christian for his passage. Mark, here lies the mystery
of it, A little in the world will content a Christian for his
passage, but all the world, and ten thousand times more, will not
content a Christian for his portion. A carnal heart will be
content with these things of the world for his portion; and that
is the difference between a carnal heart and a gracious heart. But
a gracious heart says, 'Lord, do with me what you will for my
passage through this world; I will be content with that, but I
cannot be content with all the world for my portion.' So there is
the mystery of true contentment. A contented man, though he is
most contented with the least things in the world, yet he is the
most dissatisfied man that lives in the world.

A soul that is capable of God can be
filled with nothing else but God; nothing but God can fill a soul
that is capable of God. Though a gracious heart knows that it is
capable of God, and was made for God, carnal hearts think without
reference to God. But a gracious heart, being enlarged to be
capable of God, and enjoying somewhat of him, can be filled by
nothing in the world; it must only be God himself. Therefore you
will observe, that whatever God may give to a gracious heart, a
heart that is godly, unless he gives himself it will not do. A
godly heart will not only have the mercy, but the God of that
mercy as well; and then a little matter is enough in the world, so
be it he has the God of the mercy which he enjoys. In

Philippians 4:7, 9 (I need go no
further to show clear Scripture for this) compare verse 7 with
verse 9: 'And the peace of God which passeth all understanding
shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.' The peace
of God shall keep your hearts. Then in verse 9: 'Those things
which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in
me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.' The peace of God
shall keep you, and the God of peace shall be with you.

Here is what I would observe from
this text. That the peace of God is not enough to a gracious heart
except it may have the God of that peace. A carnal heart could be
satisfied if he might but have outward peace, though it is not the
pace of God; peace in the state, and his trading, would satisfy
him. But mark how a godly heart goes beyond a carnal. All outward
peace is not enough; I must have the peace of God. But suppose you
have the peace of God. Will that not quiet you? No, I must have
the God of peace; as the peace of God so the God of peace. That
is, I must enjoy that God who gives me the peace; I must have the
Cause as well as the effect. I must see from whence my peace
comes, and enjoy the Fountain of my peace, as well as the stream
of my peace. And so in other mercies: have I health from God? I
must have the God of my health to be my portion, or else I am not
satisfied. It is not life, but the God of my life; it is not
riches, but the God of those riches, that I must have, the God of
my preservation, as well as my preservation.

A gracious heart is not satisfied
without this: to have the God of the mercy, as well as the mercy.
In

Psalm 73:25, 'Whom have I in heaven
but thee, and there is none upon the earth that I desire beside
thee.' There is nothing in heaven or earth that can satisfy me,
but yourself. If God gave you not only earth but heaven, that you
should rule over sun, moon and stars, and have the rule over the
highest of the sons of men, it would not be enough to satisfy you,
unless you had God himself. There lies the first mystery of
contentment. And truly a contented man, though he is the most
contented man in the world, is the most dissatisfied man in the
world; that is, those things that will satisfy the world, will not
satisfy him.

2. A CHRISTIAN COMES TO CONTENTMENT,
NOT SO MUCH BY WAY OF ADDITION, AS BY WAY OF
SUBTRACTION.

That is his way of contentment, and
it is a way that the world has no skill in. I open it thus: not so
much by adding to what he would have, or to what he has, not by
adding more to his condition; but rather by subtracting from his
desires, so as to make his desires and his circumstances even and
equal.

A carnal heart knows no way to be
contented but this: I have such and such possessions, and if I had
this added to them, and the other comfort added that I have not
now, then I should be contented. perhaps I have lost my
possessions, if I could only have given to me something to make up
my loss, then I should be a contented man. But contentment does
not come in that way, it does not come, I say, by adding to what
you want, but by subtracting from your desires. It is all one to a
Christian, whether I get up to what I would have, or get my
desires down to what I have, either to attain what I do desire, or
to bring down my desires to what I have already attained. My
wealth is the same, for it is as fitting for me to bring my desire
down to my circumstances, as it is to raise up my circumstances to
my desire.

Now I say that a heart that has no
grace, and is not instructed in this mystery of contentment, knows
of no way to get contentment, but to have his possessions raised
up to his desires; but the Christian has another way to
contentment, that is, he can bring his desires down to his
possessions, and so he attains his contentment. Thus the Lord
fashions the hearts of the children of men. If the heart of a man
is fashioned to his circumstances, he may have as much contentment
as if his circumstances were fashioned to his heart. Some men have
a mighty large heart, but they have straitened circumstances, and
they can never have contentment when they hearts are big and their
circumstances are little. But though a man cannot bring his
circumstances to be as great as his heart, yet if he can bring his
heart to be as little as his circumstances, to make them even,
this is the way to contentment. The world is infinitely deceived
in thinking that contentment lies in having more than we already
have. Here lies the bottom and root of all contentment, when there
is an evenness and proportion between our hearts and our
circumstances. That is why many godly men who are in low position
live more sweet and comfortable lives than those who are
richer.

Contentment is not always clothed
with silk and purple and velvets, but it is sometimes in a
home-spun suit, in mean circumstances, as well as in higher. Many
men who once have had great estates, and God has brought them into
a lower position have had more contentment in those circumstances
than they had before. Now how can that possibly be? Quite easily,
if you only understood that the root of contentment consists in
the suitableness and proportion of a man's spirit to his
possessions, an evenness where one end is not longer and bigger
than the other. The heart is contented and there is comfort in
those circumstances. But now let God give a man riches, no matter
how great, yet if the Lord gives him up to the pride of his heart,
he will never be contented: on the other hand, let God bring
anyone into mean circumstances, and then let God but fashion and
suit his heart to those circumstances and he will be
content.

It is the same in walking: Suppose a
man had a very long leg, and his other leg was short-why, though
one of his legs was longer than usual, still he could not go as
well as a man both of whose legs are shorter than his. I would
compare a long leg, when one is longer than the other, to a man
who has a high position and is very rich and a great man in the
world, but he has a very proud heart, too, and that is longer and
larger than his position. This man cannot but be troubled in his
circumstances. Another man is in a mean position, his
circumstances are low and his heart is low too, so that his heart
and his circumstances are even. This man walks with abundantly
more ease than the other. Thus a gracious heart thinks in this
way: 'The Lord has been pleased to bring down my circumstances;
now if the Lord brings down my heart and makes it equal to my
circumstances, then I am well enough.' So when God brings down his
circumstances, he does not so much labor to raise up his
circumstances again as to bring his heart down to his
circumstances. Even the heathen philosophers had a little glimpse
of this: they could say that the best riches is poverty of
desires-those are the words of a heathen. That is, if a man or
woman have their desires cut short, and have no large desires,
that man or woman is rich. So this is the art of contentment: not
to seek to add to our circumstances, but to subtract form our
desires. Another author has said, The way to be rich is not by
increasing wealth, but by diminishing our desires. Certainly that
man or woman is rich, who have their desires satisfied. Now a
contented man has his desires satisfied, God satisfies them, that
is, all considered, he is satisfied that his circumstances are for
the present the best circumstances.

So he comes to this contentment by
way of subtraction, and not addition.

3. A CHRISTIAN COMES TO CONTENTMENT,
NOT SO MUCH BY GETTING RID OF THE BURDEN THAT IS ON HIM, AS BY
ADDING ANOTHER BURDEN TO HIMSELF.

This is a way that flesh and blood
has little skill in. You will say, 'How is this?' In this manner:
are you afflicted, and is there a great load and burden on you
because of your affliction? You think there is no way in the world
to get contentment, but, O that this burden were but off! O it is
a heavy load, and few know what a burden I have. What, do you
think that there is no way for the contentment of your spirit, but
to get rid of your burden? O you are deceived. The way of
contentment is to add another burden, that is, to labor to load
and burden your heart with your sin; the heavier the burden of
your sin is to your heart, the lighter will the burden of your
affliction be to your heart, and so you shall come to be content.
If you burden were lightened, that would content you; you think
there is no way to lighten it but to get it off. But you are
deceived; for if you can get your heart to be more burdened with
your sin, you will be less burdened with your
afflictions.

You will say, this is a strange way
for a man or woman to get ease to their condition, to lay a
greater burden upon them when they are already burdened? You think
there is no other way, when you are afflicted, but to be jolly and
merry, and get into company. Oh now, you are deceived, your burden
will come again. Alas, this is a poor way to get one's spirit
quitted; poor man, the burden will be upon him again. If you would
have your burden light, get alone and examine your heart for your
sin, and charge your soul with your sin. If your burden is in your
possessions, for the abuse of them, or if it is a burden upon your
body, for the abuse of your health and strength, and the abuse of
any mercies that now the Lord has taken away from you, that you
have not honored God with those mercies that you have had, but you
have walked wantonly and carelessly; if you so fall to bemoaning
your sin before the Lord, you shall quickly find the burden of
your affliction to be lighter than it was before. Do but try this
piece of skill and art, to get your souls contented with any low
circumstances that God puts you into.

Many times in a family, when any
affliction befalls them, Oh, what an amount of discontent is there
between man and wife! If they are crossed in their possessions at
land, or have bad news from across the seas, or if those whom they
trusted are ruined and the like, or perhaps something in the
family causes strife between man and wife, in reference to the
children or servants, and there is nothing but quarrelling and
discontent among them, now they are many times burdened with their
own discontent; and perhaps will say one to another, It is very
uncomfortable for us to live so discontented as we do. But have
you ever tried this way, husband and wife? Have you ever got alone
and said, 'Come, Oh let us go and humble our souls before God
together, let us go into our chamber and humble our souls before
God for our sin, by which we have abused those mercies that God
has taken away from us, and we have provoked God against us. Oh
let us charge ourselves with our sin, and be humbled before the
Lord together.'? Have you tried such a way as this? Oh you would
find that the cloud would be taken away, and the sun would shine
in upon you, and you would have a great deal more contentment than
ever you had. If a man's estate is broken, either by plunderers,
or any other way; how shall this man have contentment? How? By the
breaking of his heart. God has broken your estate; Oh seek to him
for the breaking of your heart likewise. Indeed, a broken estate
and a whole heart, a hard heart, will not join together; there
will be no contentment. But a broken estate and a broken heart
will so suit one another, as that there will be more contentment
than there was before.

Add therefore to the breaking of
your estate, the breaking of your heart, and that is the way to be
contented in a Christian manner, which is the third mystery in
Christian contentment.

4. IT IS NOT SO MUCH THE REMOVING OF
THE AFFLICTION THAT IS UPON US AS THE CHANGING OF THE AFFLICTION,
THE METAMORPHOSING OF THE AFFLICTION, SO THAT IT IS QUITE TURNED
AND CHANGED INTO SOMETHING ELSE.

I mean in regard of the use of it,
though for the thing itself the affliction remains. The way of
contentment to a carnal heart is only the removing of the
affliction. O that it may be gone! 'No,' says a gracious heart,
'God has taught me a way to be content though the affliction
itself still continues.' There is a power of grace to turn this
affliction into good; it takes away the sting and poison of it.
Take the case of poverty, a man's possessions are lost: Well, is
there no way to be contented till your possessions are made up
again? Till your poverty is removed? Yes, certainly, Christianity
would teach contentment, though poverty continues. It will teach
you how to turn your poverty to spiritual riches. You shall be
poor still as to your outward possessions, but this shall be
altered; whereas before it was a natural evil to you, it comes now
to be turned to a spiritual benefit to you. And so you come to be
content.

There is a saying of Ambrose, 'Even
poverty itself is riches to holy men.' Godly men make their
poverty turn to riches; they get more riches out of their poverty
than ever they get out of their revenues. Out of all their trading
in this world they never had such incomes as they have had out of
their poverty. This a carnal heart will thing strange, that a man
shall make poverty the most gainful trade that ever he had in the
world. I am persuaded that many Christians have found it so, that
they have got more good by their poverty, than ever they got by
all their riches. You find it in Scripture.

Therefore thing not this strange
that I am speaking of. You do not find one godly man who came out
of an affliction worse than when he went into it; though for a
while he was shaken, yet at last he was better for an
affliction.

But a great many godly men, you
find, have been worse for their prosperity. Scarcely one godly man
that you read of in Scripture but was worse for prosperity (except
for Daniel and Nehemiah-I do not read of any hurt they got by
their prosperity); scarcely, I think, is there one example of a
godly man who was not worse for his prosperity than better. Sao
rather you see it is no strange thing to one who is gracious that
they shall get good by their affliction.

Luther has a similar expression in
his comment on the 5th chapter of the Galatians, the 17th verse:
he says, 'Christian becomes a mighty worker and a wonderful
creator, that is', he says, 'to create out of heaviness joy, out
of terror comfort, out of sin righteousness, and out of death
life.' He brings light out of darkness. It was God's prerogative
and great power, his creating power to command the light to shine
out of darkness. Now a Christian is partaker of the divine nature,
so the Scripture says; grace is part of the divine nature, and,
being part of the divine nature, it has an impression of God's
omnipotent power, that is, to create light out of darkness, to
bring good out of evil-by this a way a Christian comes to be
content. God has given a Christian such power that he can turn
afflictions into mercies, can turn darkness into light. If a man
had the power that Christ had, when the water pots were filled, he
could by a word turn the water into wine. If you who have nothing
but water to drink had the power to turn it into wine, then you
might be contented; certainly a Christian has receive this power
from God, to work thus miraculously. It is the nature of grace to
turn water into wine, that is, to turn the water of your
affliction, into the wine of heavenly consolation.

If you understand this in a carnal
way, I know it will be ridiculous for a minister to speak thus to
you, and many carnal people are ready to make such expressions as
these ridiculous, understanding them in a carnal way.

This is just like Nicodemus, in the
third of John, 'What! can a man be born when he is old? can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?' So when
we say of grace, that it can turn water into wine, and turn
poverty into riches, and make poverty a gainful trade, a carnal
heart says, 'Let them have that trade if they will, and let them
have water to drink, and see if they can turn it into wine.' Oh,
take heed you do not speak in a scornful way of the ways of God;
grace has the power to turn afflictions into mercies. Two men may
have the same affliction; to one it shall be as gall and wormwood,
yet it shall be wine and honey and delightfulness and joy and
advantage and riches to the other. This is the mystery of
contentment, not so much by removing the evil, as by
metamorphosing the evil, by changing the evil into
good.

5. A CHRISTIAN COMES TO THIS
CONTENTMENT NOT BY MAKING UP THE WANTS OF HIS CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT
BY THE PERFORMANCE OF THE WORK OF HIS CIRCUMSTANCES.

This is the way of contentment.
There are these circumstances that I am in, with many wants: I
want this and the other comfort-well, how shall I come to be
satisfied and content? A carnal heart thinks, I must have my wants
made up or else it is impossible that I should be content. But a
gracious heart says, 'What is the duty of the circumstances God
has put me into? Indeed, my circumstances have changed, I was not
long since in a prosperous state, but God has changed my
circumstances. The Lord has called me no more Naomi, but Marah.
Now what am I to do? What can I think now are those duties that
God requires of me in the circumstances that he has now put me
into? Let me exert my strength to perform the duties of my present
circumstances. Others spend their thoughts on things that disturb
and disquiet them, and so they grow more and more
discontented.

Let me spend my thoughts in thinking
what my duty is, 'O', says a man whose condition is changed and
who has lost his wealth, 'Had I but my wealth, as I had
heretofore, how would I use it to his glory? God has made me see
that I did not honor him with my possessions as I ought to have
done. O if I had it again, I would do better than I did before.'
But this may be but a temptation. You should rather think, 'What
does God require of me in the circumstances I am now brought
into?' You should labor to bring your heart to quiet and
contentment by setting your soul to work in the duties of your
present condition. And the truth is, I know nothing more effective
for quieting a Christian soul and getting contentment than this,
setting your heart to work in the duties of the immediate
circumstances that you are now in, and taking heed of your
thoughts about other conditions as a mere temptation.

I cannot better compare the folly of
those men and women who think they will get contentment by musing
about other circumstances than to the way of children: perhaps
they have climbed a hill and look a good way off and see another
hill, and they think if they were on the top of that, they would
be able to touch the clouds with their fingers; but when they are
on the top of that hill, alas, they are as far from the clouds as
they were before. So it is with many who think, If I were in such
circumstances, then I should have contentment; and perhaps they
get into circumstances, and they are as far from contentment as
before. But then they think that if they were in other
circumstances, they would be contented, but when they have got
into those circumstances, they are still as far from contentment
as before. No, no, let me consider what is the duty of my present
circumstances, and content my heart with this, and say, 'Well,
though I am in a low position, yet I am serving the counsels of
God in those circumstances where I am; it is the counsel of God
that has brought me into these circumstances that I am in, and I
desire to serve the counsel of God in these
circumstances.

There is a remarkable Scripture
concerning David, of whom it is said that he served his
generation: 'After David had served his generation according to
the will of God, then he slept.' It is a saying of Paul concerning
him in Acts 13:36. In your Bibles it is, 'After he had served his
own generation according to the will of God', but the word that is
translated will, means the counsel of God, and so it may be
translated as well, 'That after David in his generation had served
God's counsel, then he fell asleep'. We ordinarily take the words
thus, That David served his generation: that is, he did the work
of his generation-that is to serve a man's generation. But it is
clearer if you read it thus, After David in his generation had
served the counsel of God, then David fell asleep. O that should
be the care of a Christian, to serve out God's counsels. What is
the counsel of God? The circumstances that I am in, God has put me
into by his own counsel, the counsel of his own will. Now I must
serve God's counsel in my generation; whatever is the counsel of
God in my circumstances, I must be careful to serve that. So I
shall have my heart quieted for the present, and shall live and
die peaceably and comfortably, if I am careful to serve God's
counsel.

6. A GRACIOUS HEART IS CONTENTED BY
THE MELTING OF HIS WILL AND DESIRES INTO GOD'S WILL AND DESIRES;
BY THIS MEANS HE GETS CONTENTMENT.

This too is a mystery to a carnal
heart. It is not by having his own desires satisfied, but by
melting his will and desires into God's will. So that, in one
sense, he comes to have his desires satisfied though he does not
obtain the thing that he desired before; still he comes to be
satisfied with this, because he makes his will to be at one with
God's will. This is a small degree higher than submitting to the
will of God. You all say that you should submit to God's will; a
Christian has got beyond this. He can make God's will and his own
the same. It is said of believers that they are joined to the
Lord, and are one spirit; that means, that whatever God's will is,
I do not only see good reason to submit to it, but God's will is
my will. When the soul can make over, as it were, its will to God,
it must needs be contented. Others would fain get the thing they
desire, but a gracious heart will say, 'O what God would have, I
would have too; I will not only yield to it, but I would have it
too.' A gracious heart has learned this art, not only to make the
commanding will of God to be its own will-that is, what God
commands me to do, I will do it-but to make the providential will
of God and the operative will of God to be his will too. God
commands this thing, which perhaps you who are Christians may have
some skill in, but whatever God works you must will, as well as
what God commands.

You must make God's providential
will and his operative will, your will as well as God's will, and
in this way you must come to contentment. A Christian makes over
his will to God, and in making over his will to God, he has no
other will but God's. Suppose a man were to make over his debt to
another man. If the man to whom I owe the debt be satisfied and
contented, I am satisfied because I have made it over to him, and
I need not be discontented and say, 'My debt is not paid and I am
not satisfied'. Yes, you are satisfied, for he to whom you made
over your debt is satisfied. It is just the same, for all the
world, between God and a Christian: a Christian heart makes over
his will to God: now then if God's will is satisfied, then I am
satisfied, for I have no will of my own, it is melted into the
will of God. This is the excellence of grace: grace does not only
subject the will to God, but it melts the will into God's will, so
that they are now but one will. What a sweet satisfaction the soul
must have in this condition, when all is made over to God. You
will say, This is hard! I will express it a little more: A
gracious heart must needs have satisfaction in this way, because
godliness teaches him this, to see that his good is more in God
than in himself. The good of my life and comforts and my happiness
and my glory and my riches are more in God than in myself. We may
perhaps speak more of that, when we come to the lessons that are
to be learned. It is by this that a gracious heart gets
contentment; he melts his will into God's, for he says, 'If God
has glory, I have glory; God's glory is my glory, and therefore
God's will is mine; if God has riches, then I have riches; if God
is magnified, then I am magnified; if God is satisfied, then I am
satisfied; God's wisdom and holiness is mine, and therefore his
will must needs be mine, and my will must needs be his.' This is
the art of a Christian's contentment: he melts his will into the
will of God, and makes over his will to God: 'Oh Lord, thou shalt
choose our inheritance for us' (Psalm 47:4).

7. THE MYSTERY CONSISTS NOT IN
BRINGING ANYTHING FROM OUTSIDE TO MAKE MY CONDITION MORE
COMFORTABLE, BUT IN PURGING OUT SOMETHING THAT IS
WITHIN.

Now the men of the world, when they
would have contentment, and lack anything, Oh, they must have
something from outside to content them. But a godly man says: 'Let
me get something out that is in already, and then I shall come to
contentment.' Suppose a man has a fever, that makes what he drinks
taste bitter: he says, 'You must put some sugar into my drink';
his wife puts some in, and still the drink tastes bitter. Why?
Because the bitterness comes from a bitter choleric humor within.
But let the physician come and give him a bitter portion to purge
out the bitterness that is within, and then he can taste his drink
well enough. It is just the same with men of the world: Oh such a
mercy added to this mercy, then it would be sweet; but even if God
should put a spoonful or two of sugar in, it would still be
bitter. The way to contentment is to purge out your lusts and
bitter humours.

'From whence are wars, and strifes?
are they not from your lusts that are within you?' (James
4:1).

They are not so much from things
outside, but from within. I have said sometimes, 'Not all the
storms that are abroad can make an earthquake, but the vapours
that have got within.' So if those lusts that are within, in your
heart, were got out, your condition would be a contented
condition. These are the mysterious ways of godliness, that the
men of the world never think of. When did you ever think of such a
way as this, to go and purge out the diseases of your heart that
are within? Here are seven particulars now named, and there are
many more. Without the understanding of these things, and the
practice of them, you will never come to a true contentment in
your life; Oh, you will be bunglers in this trade of Christianity.
But the right perceiving of these things will help you to be
instructed in it, as in a mystery.

The mystery of contentment may be
shown even more. A gracious heart gets contentment in a mysterious
way, a way that the world is not acquainted with.

8. HE LIVES UPON THE DEW OF GOD'S
BLESSING.

Adrian Junius uses the simile of a
grasshopper to describe a contented man, and says he has this
motto, 'I am content with what I have, and hope for better.' A
grasshopper leads and skips up and down, and lives on the
dew.

A grasshopper does not live on the
grass as other things do; you do not know what it feeds on. Other
things though as little as grasshoppers, feed upon seeds or little
flies and such things, but as for the grasshopper, you do not know
what it feeds upon. In the same way a Christian can get food that
the world does not know of; he is fed in a secret way by the dew
of the blessing of God. A poor man or woman who has but a little
with grace, lives a more contented life than his rich neighbor who
has a great income; we find it so ordinarily-though they have but
little, yet they have a secret blessing of God with it, which they
cannot express to anyone else. If you were to come to them and
say: 'How is it that you live as happily as you do?', they cannot
tell you what they have; but they find there is a sweetness in
what they do enjoy, and they know by experience that they never
had such sweetness in former times. Even though they had a greater
abundance in former times than they have now, yet they know they
never had such sweetness; but how this comes about they cannot
tell. We may mention some considerations, in what godly men enjoy,
which make their condition sweet.

For example, Take these four or five
considerations with which a godly man finds contentment in what he
has, though it is ever so little.

1. Because in what he has, he has
the love of God to him. If a king were to send a piece of meat
from his own table, it would be a great deal more pleasant to a
courtier than if he had twenty dishes as an ordinary allowance; if
the king sends even a little thing and says, 'Go and carry it to
that man as a token of my love', Oh, how delightful would that be
to him! When your husbands are at sea and send you a token of
their love, it is worth more than forty times what you already
have in your houses. Every good thing the people of God enjoy,
they enjoy it in God's love, as a token of God's love, and coming
from God's eternal love to them, and this must needs be very sweet
to them.

2. What they have is sanctified to
them for good. Other men have what they enjoy in the way of common
providence, but the saints have it in a special way. Others have
what they have and no more: meat, and drink, and houses, and
clothes, and money, and that is all. But a gracious heart finds
contentment in this, I have it, and I have a sanctified use of it
too; I find God goes along with what I have to draw my heart
nearer to him, and sanctify my heart to him. If I find my heart
drawn nearer to God by what I enjoy, that is much more than if I
have it without sanctifying of my heart by it. There is a secret
dew that goes along with it: the dew of God's love in it, and the
dew of sanctification.

3. A gracious heart has what he has
free of cost; he is not likely to be called to pay for it. The
difference between what a godly man has and a wicked man, is this:
A godly man is as a child in an inn, an inn-keeper has his child
in the house, and provides his diet, and lodging, and what is
needful for him. Now a stranger comes, and he has dinner and
supper provided, and lodging, but the stranger must pay for
everything. It may be that the child's fare is meaner than the
fare of the stranger; the stranger has boiled and roast and baked,
but he must pay for it, there must come a reckoning for it. Just
so it is: many of God's people have only mean fare, but God as a
Father provides it, and it is free of cost, they need not pay for
what they have, it is paid for before; but the wicked in all their
pomp, and pride, and finery: they have what they ask for, but
there must come a reckoning for everything, they must pay for all
at the conclusion, and is it not better to have a little free of
cost, than to have to pay for everything? Grace shows a man that
what he has, he has free of cost, from God as from a Father, and
therefore it must needs be very sweet.

4. A godly man may very well be
content, though he has only a little, for what he does have he has
by right of Jesus Christ, by the purchase of Jesus Christ. He has
a right to it, a different kind of right to that which a wicked
man can have to what he has. Wicked men have certain outward
things; I do not say they are usurpers of what they have; they
have a right to it, and that before God, but how? It is a right by
mere donation, that is, God by his free bounty gives it to them;
but the right that the saints have is a right of purchase: it is
paid for, and it is their own, and they may in a holy manner and
holy way claim whatever they have need of. We cannot express the
difference between the right of a holy man, and the right of the
wicked more fully than by the following simile: a criminal is
condemned to die, and yet by favor he has his supper provided
overnight. Now though the criminal has forfeited all his right to
all things, to every bit of bread, yet if he is given his supper
he does not steal it. This is true though he has forfeited all
rights by his fault, and after he has once been condemned he has
no right to anything. So it is with the wicked: they have
forfeited all their right to the comforts of this world, they are
condemned by God as criminals, and are going to execution; but if
God in his bounty gives them something to preserve them here in
the world, they cannot be said to be thieves or robbers. But if a
man is given a supper overnight before his execution, is that like
the supper that he was wont to have in his own house, when he ate
his own bread, and had his wife and children about him? Oh, a dish
of green herbs at home would be a great deal better than any
dainties in such a supper as that. But a child of God has not a
right merely by donation; what he has is his own, through the
purchase of Christ. Every bit of bread you eat, if you are a godly
man or woman, Jesus Christ has bought it for you.

You go to market and buy your meat
and drink with your money, but know that before you buy it, or pay
money, Christ has bought it at the hand of God the Father with his
blood. You have it at the hands of men for money, but Christ has
bought it at the hand of his Father by his blood. Certainly it is
a great deal better and sweeter now, though it is but a
little.

5. There is another thing that shows
the sweetness that is in the little that the Saints have, by which
they come to have contentment, whereas others cannot, that is,
Every little that they have is but as an earnest penny* for all
the glory that is reserved for them; it is given them by God as
the forerunner of those eternal mercies that the Lord intends for
them. [*A first instalment which guarantees that the rest is
to follow.] Now if a man has but twelve pence given to him as
an earnest penny for some great possession that he must have, is
that not better than if he had forty pounds given to him
otherwise? So every comfort that the saints have in this world is
an earnest penny to them of those eternal mercies that the Lord
has provided for them.

Just as every affliction that the
wicked have here is but the beginning of sorrows, and forerunner
of those eternal sorrows that they are likely to have hereafter in
Hell, so every comfort you have is a forerunner of those eternal
mercies you shall have with God in Heaven. Not only are the
consolations of God's Spirit the forerunners of those eternal
comforts you shall have in Heaven, but when you sit at your table,
and rejoice with your wife and children and friends, you may look
upon every one of those but as a forerunner, yea the very earnest
penny of eternal life to you. Now if this is so, it is no marvel
that a Christian is contented, but this is a mystery to the
wicked. I have what I have from the love of God, and I have it
sanctified to me by God, and I have it free of cost from God by
the purchase of the blood of Jesus Christ, and I have it as a
forerunner of those eternal mercies that are reserved for me; and
in this my soul rejoices. There is a secret dew of God's goodness
and blessing upon him in his estate that others have
not.

By all this you may see the meaning
of that Scripture, 'Better is a little with righteousness than
great revenues without right' (

Proverbs 16:8). A man who has but a
little, yet if he has it with righteousness, it is better than a
great deal without right, yea, better than the great revenues of
the wicked- so you have it in another Scripture. That is the next
thing in Christian contentment: the mystery is in this, that he
lives on the dew of God's blessing, in all the good things that he
enjoys.

9. NOT ONLY IN GOOD THINGS DOES A
CHRISTIAN HAVE THE DEW OF GOD'S BLESSING.

And find them very sweet to him, but
in all the afflictions, all the evils that befall him, he can see
love, and can enjoy the sweetness of love in his afflictions as
well as in his mercies. The truth is that the afflictions of God's
people come from the same eternal love that Jesus Christ cam from.
Jerome said, 'He is a happy man who is beaten when the stroke is a
stroke of love.' All God's strokes are strokes of love and mercy,
all God's ways are mercy and truth, to those that fear him and
love him (

Psalm 25:10). The ways of God, the
ways of affliction, as well as the ways of prosperity, are mercy
and love to him. Grace gives a man an eye, a piercing eye to
pierce the counsel of God, those eternal counsels of God for good
to him, even in his afflictions; he can see the love of God in
every affliction as well as in prosperity. Now this is a mystery
to a carnal heart. They can see no such thing; perhaps them rich,
but they thing God loves them when he prospers them and makes them
rich, but they think God loves them not when he afflicts mystery,
grace enables men to see love in the very frown of God's face, and
so comes to receive contentment.

10. A GODLY MAN HAS CONTENTMENT AS A
MYSTERY, because just as he sees all his afflictions come from the
same love that Jesus Christ did, so he sees them all sanctified in
Jesus Christ, sanctified in a Mediator. He sees, I say, all the
sting and venom and poison of them taken out by the virtue of
Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man. For instance, when
a Christian would have contentment he works it out thus: what is
my affliction? Is it poverty that God strikes me with?-Jesus
Christ had not a house to hide his head in, the fowls of the air
had nests, and the foxes holes, but the Son of man had not a hole
to hide his head in; now my poverty is sanctified by Christ's
poverty. I can see by faith the curse and sting and venom taken
out of my poverty by the poverty of Jesus Christ.

Christ Jesus was poor in this world
to deliver me from the curse of my poverty. So my poverty is not
afflictive, if I can be contented in such a condition. That is the
way, not to stand and repine, because I have not what others have;
no, but I am poor, and Christ was poor, that he might bless my
poverty to me.

And so again, am I disgraced or
dishonored? Is my good name taken away? Why, Jesus Christ had
dishonor put upon him; he was called Beelzebub, and a Samaritan,
and they said he had a devil in him. All the foul aspersions that
could be, were cast upon Jesus Christ, and this was for me, that I
might have the disgrace that is cast upon me sanctified to me.
Whereas another man's heart is overwhelmed with dishonor, and
disgrace, and he seeks in this way to get contentment: perhaps you
have been spoken ill of and you have no other way to ease and
right yourselves, but if they abuse you, you will abuse them back;
and so you think to ease yourselves. Oh, but a Christian has
another way to ease himself: others abuse and speak ill of me, but
did they not abuse Jesus Christ, and speak ill of him? And what am
I in comparison of Christ? And the subjection of Christ to such an
evil was for me, that though such a thing should come upon me, I
might know that the curse of it is taken from me through Christ's
subjection to that evil.

Thus, a Christian can be content
when anybody speaks ill of him. Now, this is a mystery to you, to
get contentment in this way. So if men jeer and scoff at you, did
they not do so to Jesus Christ? They jeered and scoffed at him,
and that when he was in his greatest extremity upon the Cross:
they said, Here is the King of the Jews, and they bowed the knee,
and said, Hail King of the Jews, and put a reed into his hand, and
mocked him. Now I get contentment in the midst of scorns and
jeers, by considering that Christ was scorned, and by acting faith
upon what Christ suffered for me. Am I in great bodily pain?-Jesus
Christ had as great pain in his body as I have (though it is true
he did not have the same kind of sicknesses as we have, yet he had
as great pain and tortures in his body, and that which was deadly
to him, as much as any sickness is to us). The exercising of faith
on what Christ endured, is the way to get contentment in the midst
of our pains.

Someone lies vexing and fretting
himself, and cannot bear his pain: are you a Christian? Have you
ever tried this way of getting contentment, to act your faith on
all the pains and sufferings that Jesus Christ suffered: this
would be the way of contentment, and a Christian gets contentment
when under pains, in this way. Sometimes one who is very godly and
gracious, may be found bearing grievous pains and extremities very
cheerfully, and you wonder at it. He gets it by acting his faith
upon what pains Jesus Christ suffered. You are afraid of death-the
way to get contentment is by exercising your faith on the death of
Jesus Christ. It may be that you have inward troubles in your
soul, and God withdraws himself from you; still your faith is to
be exercised upon the sufferings that Jesus Christ endured in his
soul. He poured forth his soul before God, and when he sweat drops
of water and blood, he was in an agony in his very spirit, and he
found even God himself about to forsake him. Now thus to act your
faith on Jesus Christ brings contentment, and is not this a
mystery to carnal hearts? A gracious heart finds contentment as a
mystery; it is no marvel that St. Paul said, 'I am instructed in a
mystery, to be contented in whatsoever condition I am in.' 11.
THERE IS STILL A FURTHER MYSTERY, for I hope you will find this a
very useful point and that before we have finished you will see
how simple it is for one who is skilled in religion to get
contentment, though it is hard for one who is carnal. I say, the
eleventh mystery in contentment is this: A gracious heart has
contentment by getting strength from Jesus Christ; he is able to
bear his burden by getting strength from someone else. Now this is
a riddle, and it would be counted ridiculous in the schools of the
philosophers, to say, If there is a burden on you you must get
strength form someone else. Indeed if you must have another come
and stand under the burden, they could understand that; but that
you should be strengthened by the strength of someone else, who is
not near you as far as you can see, they would think ridiculous.
But a Christian finds satisfaction in every circumstance by
getting strength from another, by going out of himself to Jesus
Christ, by his faith acting upon Christ, and bringing the strength
of Jesus Christ into his own soul, he is thereby enabled to bear
whatever God lays on him, by the strength that he finds from Jesus
Christ. Of his fullness do we receive grace for grace; there is
strength in Christ not only to sanctify and save us, but strength
to support us under all our burdens and afflictions, and Christ
expects that when we are under any burden, we should act our faith
upon him to draw virtue and strength from him. Faith is the great
grace that is to be acted under afflictions. It is true that other
graces should be acted, but the grace of faith draws strength from
Christ, in looking on him who has the fullness of all strength
conveyed into the hearts of all believers.

Now if a man has a burden to bear,
and yet can have strength added to him-if the burden is doubled,
he can have his strength trebled-the burden will not be heavier
but lighter than it was before to his natural strength.

Indeed, our afflictions may be
heavy, and we cry out, Oh, we cannot bear them, we cannot bear
such an affliction. Though you cannot tell how to bear it with
your own strength, yet how can you tell what you will do with the
strength of Jesus Christ? You say you cannot bear it? So you think
that Christ could not bear it? But if Christ could bear it why may
you not come to bear it? You will say, Can I have the strength of
Christ? Yes, it is made over to you by faith: the Scripture says
that the Lord is our strength, God himself is our strength, and
Christ is our strength. There are many Scriptures to that effect,
that Christ's strength is yours, made over to you, so that you may
be able to bear whatever lies upon you, and therefore we find such
a strange expression in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians,
praying for the saints: 'That they might be strengthened with all
might according unto his glorious power', unto what? 'Unto all
patience and longsuffering with joyfulness'-strengthened with all
might, according to the power of God, the glorious power of God,
unto all patience, and longsuffering with joyfulness. You must not
therefore be content with a little strength, so that you are able
to bear what a man might bear by the strength of reason and
nature, but you should be strengthened with all might, according
to the glorious power of God, unto all patience, and to all
longsuffering.

Oh, you who are now under very heavy
and sad afflictions more than usual, look at this Scripture, and
consider how it is made good in you; and why may you not have this
Scripture made good in you, if you are godly? You should not be
quiet in your own spirits, unless in some measure you get this
Scripture made good in you, so that you may with some comfort say,
'Through God's mercy, I find that strength coming into me that is
spoken of in this Scripture.' You should labor when you are under
any great affliction (you who are godly) to walk so that others
may see such a Scripture made good in you. This is the glorious
power of God that strengthens his servants to all longsuffering,
and that with joyfulness. Alas, it may be that you do not exercise
as much patience as a wise man or a wise woman who has only
natural reason. But where is the power of God, the glorious power
of God? Where is the strengthening with all might, unto all
longsuffering and patience, and that with joyfulness? It is true,
the spirit of a man may be able to sustain his infirmities, may be
able to sustain and keep up his spirits, the natural spirit of a
man can do that, but much more when the spirit is endued with
grace and holiness, and when it is filled with the strength of
Jesus Christ. This is the way a godly man gets contentment, the
mystery of it, by getting strength from Jesus Christ.

12. A GODLY HEART ENJOYS MUCH OF GOD
IN EVERYTHING HE HAS, AND KNOWS HOW TO MAKE UP ALL WANTS IN GOD
HIMSELF.

That is another mystery, he has God
in what he has. I spoke about that somewhat before, in showing the
dew of God's blessing in what one has, for God is able to let out
a great deal of his power in little things, and therefore the
miracles that God has wrought, have been as much in the little
things as in great. Now just as God lets out a great deal of his
power in working miracles in smaller things, so he lets out a
great deal of goodness and mercy, in comforting and rejoicing the
hearts of his people, in little things, as well as in great. There
may be as great riches in a pearl as in a great deal of lumber;
but this is a different thing.

Further, just as a gracious heart
lives upon God's dew in the little that he has, so when the little
that he has shall be taken from him, what shall he do then? Then,
you will say, If a man has nothing, nothing can be got out of
nothing. But if the children of God have their little taken from
them, they can make up all their wants in God himself. Such and
such a man is a poor man, the plunderers came and took away
everything that he had; what shall he do now that all is gone? But
when all is gone, there is an art and skill that godliness
teaches, to make up all those losses in God. Many men whose houses
have been burnt go about gathering, and so get together by many
hands a little; but a godly man knows where to go, to get up all,
even in God himself, so that he may enjoy the quintessence of the
same good and comfort as he had before, for a godly man does not
live so much in himself as he lives in God. Now this is a mystery
to a carnal heart. I say a gracious man does not live so much in
himself as in God; he lives in God continually. If anything is cut
off from the stream, he knows how to go to the fountain, and makes
up all there. God is his all in all, while he lives; I say it is
God who is his all in all. 'Am not I to thee' said Elkanah to
Hannah, 'instead of ten children?' So says God to a gracious
heart: 'You lack this, your estate is plundered-Why? Am not I to
you instead of ten homes, and ten shops, I am to you instead of
all; and not only instead of all, but come to me, and you shall
have all again in me.' This indeed is an excellent art, to be able
to draw from God what one had before in the creature. Christian,
how did you enjoy comfort before? Was the creature anything to you
but a conduit, a pipe, that conveyed God's goodness to you? 'The
pipe is cut off,' says God, 'come to me, the fountain, and drink
immediately.' Though the beams are taken away, yet the sun remains
the same in the firmament as ever it was. What is it that
satisfies God himself, but that he enjoys all fullness in himself;
so he comes to have satisfaction in himself. Now if you enjoy God
as your portion, if your soul can say with the Church
in

Lamentations 3:24: 'The Lord is my
portion, saith my soul', why should you not be satisfied and
contented like God? God is contented, he is in eternal contentment
in himself; now if you have that God as your portion, why should
you not be contented with him alone? Since God is contented with
himself alone, if you have him, you may be contented with him
alone, and it may be, that is the reason why your outward comforts
are taken from you, that God may be all in all to you. It may be
that while you had these things they shared with God in your
affection, a great part of the stream of your affection ran that
way; God would have the full stream run to him now. You know when
a man has water coming to his house, through several pipes, and he
finds insufficient water comes into his wash-house, he will rather
stop the other pipes that he may have all the water come in where
he wants it. Perhaps, then, God had a stream of your affection
running to him when you enjoyed these things; yes, but a great
deal was allowed to escape to the creature, a great deal of your
affections ran waste. Now the Lord would not have the affections
of his children to run waste; he does not care for other men's
affections, but yours are precious, and God would not have them to
run waste; therefore he has cut off your other pipes that your
heart might flow wholly to him. If you have children, and because
you let your servants perhaps feed them and give them things, you
perceive that your servants are stealing away the hearts of your
children, you would hardly be able to bear it; you would be ready
to send away such a servant. When the servant is gone, the child
is at a great loss, it has not got the nurse, but the father or
mother intends by sending her away, that the affections of the
child might run more strongly towards himself or herself, and what
loss is it to the child that the affections that ran in a rough
channel before towards the servant, run now towards the mother? So
those affections that run towards the creature, God would have run
towards himself, that so he may be all in all to you here in this
world.

A gracious heart can indeed tell how
to enjoy God as all in all to him. That is the happiness of heaven
to have God to be all in all. The saints in heaven do not have
houses, and lands, and money, and met and drink, and clothes; you
will say, they do not need them-why not? It is because God is all
in all to them immediately. Now while you live in this world, you
may come to enjoy much of God, you may have much of heaven, while
we live in this life we may come to enjoy much of the very life
that is in heaven, and what is that but the enjoyment of God to be
all in all to us? There is one text in the Revelation that speaks
of the glorious condition of the Church that is likely to be here
even in this world: 'And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it, and the city had no
need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory
of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof'
(Revelation 21:22).

They had no need of the sun or moon.
It speaks of such a glorious condition that the Church is likely
to be in here in this world; this does not speak of heaven, but of
a glorious estate that the Church shall be in here, in this world;
and that appears plainly, for it follows immediately in the 24th
and 24th verses, 'And the Kings of the earth do bring their glory
and honor into it'; why, the Kings of the earth shall not bring
their glory and honor into heaven, but this is such a time, when
the Kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor to the
Church. And in the 26th verse, 'And they shall bring the glory and
honor of the nations into it'; therefore here it must mean this
world and not heaven. Now is there is to be such a time here in
this world, when God shall be all in all, and in comparison there
shall be no such need of creatures as there is now, then the
saints should labor to live as near that life as possibly they
can, that is, to make up all in God.

Oh, that you would consider this
mystery, that it may be a reality to the hearts of the saints in
such times as these. They would find this privilege that they get
by grace worth thousands of worlds. Hence is that statement of
Jacob's that I have mentioned in another case; it is remarkable,
and is very pertinent here. In that remarkable speech of Jacob, in
Genesis 33, when his brother Esau met him, you find in one place
that Esau refused Jacob's present; in the

8th verse, when Jacob gave his
present to him, he refused it, and told Jacob that he had enough:
'What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said,
these are to find grace in thy sight: And Esau said, I have
enough.' Now in the

11th verse Jacob urges it still,
and, says Jacob, 'I beseech thee, take it, for I have enough.' Now
in your Bible it is the same in English-I have enough, saith Esau,
and I have enough, saith Jacob-but in the Hebrew Jacob's word is
different from Esau's: Jacob's word signifies I have all things,
and yet Jacob was poorer than Esau. Oh, this should be a shame to
us that an Esau can say, I have enough. But a Christian should
say, I have not only enough, but I have all.

How did he have all?-because he had
God who was all. It was a remarkable saying of one, 'He has all
things who has him that has all things'. Surely you have all
things, because you have him for your portion who has all things:
God has all things in himself, and you have God for your portion,
and in that you have all, and this is the mystery of contentment.
It makes up all its wants in God: this is what the men of the
world have little skill in.

Now I have many other things still
to open in the mystery of contentment. I should show likewise that
a godly man not only makes up everything in God, but finds enough
in himself to make up all-to make up everything in himself, not
from himself, but in himself-and that may seem to be stranger than
the other. To make up everything in God is something, nay, to make
up everything in himself (not from himself but in himself)-a
gracious heart has so much of God within himself, that he has
enough there to make up all his outward wants. In Proverbs 14:14
we read, 'A good man shall be satisfied from himself', from that
which is within himself-that is the meaning. A gracious man has a
bird within his own bosom which makes him melody enough, though he
lacks music. 'The Kingdom of heaven is within you' (Luke 17:21).
He has a Kingdom within him, a Kingdom of God; you see him spoken
ill of abroad, but he has a conscience within him that makes up
the want of a name and credit, that is instead of a thousand
witnesses.

13. A GRACIOUS HEART GETS
CONTENTMENT FROM THE COVENANT THAT GOD HAS MADE WITH
HIM.

Now this is a way of getting
contentment that the men of the world do not know: they can get
contentment, if they have the creature to satisfy them; but in
getting contentment from the Covenant of grace they have little
skill. I should have opened two things here, first, how to get
contentment from the Covenant of grace in general (but I shall
speak of that in the next sermon, and now, only a word on the
second). Secondly, how he gets contentment form the particular
branches of the Covenant, that is, from the particular promises
that he has, for supplying every particular want. There is no
condition that a godly man or woman can be in, but there is some
promise or other in the Scripture to help him in that condition.
And that is the way of his contentment, to go to the promises, and
get from the promise, that which may supply. This is but a dry
business to a carnal heart; but it is the most real thing in the
world to a gracious heart: when he finds lack of contentment he
repairs to the promise, and the Covenant, and falls to pleading
the promises that God has made. As I should have shown several
promises that God has made, whatever the affliction, I will only
mention one, that is, the saddest affliction of all, in case of
the visitation, and the plague (Psalm 91). Those whose friends
cannot come to them by reason of the plague, and who cannot have
other comforts, in other afflictions might have their friends and
other things to comfort them-but in that they cannot. We read,
'There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall nay plague come
nigh thy dwelling'; then there is a promise for the pestilence in
the 5th and 6th verses, this is a Scripture to those who are in
danger of it. You will say that this is a promise that the plague
shall not come nigh them; but mark that these two are joined:
there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall the plague come
nigh thee, the evil of it shall not come nigh thee.

Objection: You will say, but it does
come to many godly men, and how can they make use of this
Scripture? It is rather a Scripture that may trouble them, because
here is a promise that it shall not come nigh them, and yet it
does come nigh them as well as others.

Answer: 1 . The promises of outward
deliverance that were made to the people of God in the time of the
law, were to be understood then a great deal more literally, and
fulfilled more literally, than in the times of the gospel when God
makes it up otherwise with as much mercy. Though God made a
Covenant of grace and eternal life in Christ with them, yet I
think there was another covenant too, which God speaks of as a
distinct covenant for outward things, to deal with his people
according to their ways, either in outward prosperity, or in
outward afflictions, more so than now, in a more punctual, set
way, than in the times of the gospel. Therefore when the children
of Israel sinned against God, they were sure to have public
judgments come upon them, and if they did well, always public
mercies; the general, constant way of God was to deal with the
people of the Jews according as they did well or ill, with outward
judgments and outward mercies. But it is not so now in the times
of the gospel; we cannot bring such a certain conclusion, that if
God did deal so severely with men by such and such afflictions, he
will deal so with them now, or that they shall have outward
prosperity as they had then. Therefore, that is the first thing,
for understanding this and all other texts of the kind.

2. Perhaps their faith does not
attain to this promise; and God often brings many outward
afflictions, because the faith of his people does not reach the
promise, and that not only in the Old Testament, but in the times
of the New Testament. Zacharias' time may be said to be in the
time of the New Testament, when he was struck with dumbness
because he did not believe; and that is given as the cause why he
was struck with dumbness. But you will say now, has faith a
warrant to believe deliverance, that it shall be fully delivered?
I dare not say so, but it may act upon it, to believe that God
will make it good in his own way. Perhaps you have not done as
much, and so because of that, this promise is not fulfilled to
you.

3. When God makes such a promise to
his people, yet still it must be with this reservation, that God
must have liberty for these three things.

i . That notwithstanding his
promise, he will have liberty to make use of anything for your
chastisement.

i i . That he must have liberty, to
make use of your wealth, or liberties, or lives, for the
furtherance of his own ends, if it is to be a stumbling block to
wicked and ungodly men. God must have liberty, though he has made
a promise to you he will not release the propriety that he has in
your possessions and lives.

iii. God must have sufficient
liberty to make use of what you have, to show that his ways are
unsearchable, and his judgments past finding out. God reserves
these three things in his hand still.

Objection: But you will say, What
good then is there in such a promise that God makes to his people?
1. That you are under the protection of God more than others. But
what comfort is this if it befalls me? Answer: You have this
comfort, that the evil of it shall be taken from you, that if God
will make use of this affliction for other ends, yet he will do it
so as to make it up to you in some other way. Perhaps you have
given your children something, but afterwards if you have a use
for that thing, you will come and say, 'I must have it'. 'Why,
father?' the child may say, 'you gave it to me.' 'But I must have
it', says the father, 'and I will make it up to you in some other
way.' The child does not think that the father's love is ever a
whit the less to him. So when there is any such promise as this,
that God by his promise gives you his protection, and yet for all
that, such a thing befalls you, it is only as if the father should
say, 'I gave you that indeed, but let me have it and I will make
it up to you in some other way that shall be as good.' God says,
'Let me have your health and liberty, and life, and it shall be
made up to you in some other way.' 2. Whenever the plague or
pestilence comes to those who are under such a promise, it is fear
some special and notable work, and God requires them to search and
examine in a special manner, to find out his meaning; there is so
much to be learned in the promise that God has made concerning
this particular evil, that the people of God may come to quiet and
content their hearts in this affliction.

I read in this Psalm that God has
made a promise to his people, to deliver them from the plague and
pestilence, and yet I find it has come. It may be that I have not
made use of my faith in this promise heretofore; and if God brings
afflictions upon me, yet he will make it up some other way. God
made a promise to deliver me, or at least to deliver me from all
the evil of it; now if this thing does befall me and yet I have a
promise of God, certainly the evil of it is taken away. This
promise tells me that if it does befall me yet it is for some
notable end, and because God has a use for my life, and intends to
bring about his glory some way that I do not know of. And if he
will come in a fatherly way of chastisement, yet I will be
satisfied in the thing. So a Christian heart, by reasoning out of
the Word, comes to satisfy his soul in the midst of such a heavy
hand of God, and in such a distressed condition as that. Now
carnal hearts do not find that power in the Word, that healing
virtue that is in it, to heal their distracting cares, and the
troubles of their spirits; but when those who are godly come to
hear the Word, they find in it, as it were, a plaster for all
their wounds, and so they come to have ease and contentment in
such conditions as are very grievous and miserable to others. But
as for other particular promises, and more generally for the
Covenant of grace, how and in what a mysterious way the saints
work to get contentment and satisfaction to their souls, we shall
refer to these things in the next chapter.

In the last chapter we spoke of
several things in the mystery of contentment, and at the close we
spoke of two more, but we did not have time to open either of
them. I shall now open them a little more fully, then proceed to
some few more.

That is the next thing then: a
Christian heart not only has contentment in God, and certainly he
who has God (who himself has all) must have all, but he is able to
make up all his outward wants of creature comforts from what he
finds in himself. That may seem to be more strange. It is true,
perhaps, that even though men do not feel by experience shat it is
to make up all in God, yet we may convince them that if they have
him who has all things then they have all, for there is such a
fullness in God, he being the infinite first being of all things,
that may make up all their wants. But here is another thing, that
is beyond that; I say a godly man can make up whatever he lacks
without the creature, he can make it up in himself. In Proverbs
14:14 we read: 'A good man shall be satisfied from himself.'
Suppose for example, that he lacks outward comforts, good cheer
and feasting, a good conscience in a continual feast; so he can
make up the lack of a feast by the peace that he has in his own
conscience. If he lacks melody in the world, he has a bird within
him that sings the most melodious songs in the world, and the most
delightful. And then does he lack honor? He has his own conscience
witnessing for him, that is as a thousand witnesses. The Scripture
says (in Luke 17:21): 'Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo
there! for behold the kingdom of God is within you.' A Christian,
then, whatever he lacks he can make it up, for he has a kingdom in
himself: 'the kingdom of God is within you'.

If a king meets with a great deal of
trouble when he is abroad, he contents himself with this: 'I have
a Kingdom of my own.' It is said here, the Kingdom of God is
within a man; now if those of you who are learned look into the
Commentary on this Gospel by a certain scholar, you will find he
has a very strange idea about this text: he confesses that it is
unutterable and so it is, the kingdom of God is within you, but he
understands it that there is such a presence of God and Christ
within the soul of a man, that when the body dies, he says, the
soul goes into God and Christ, who are within him. The soul's
going into God and Christ, and enjoying that communion with God
and Christ that is within itself, that is Heaven to it, he says.
He confesses he is not able to express himself, and others cannot
understand fully what he means; but certainly for the present,
before death, there is a Kingdom of God within the soul, such a
manifestation of God in the soul as is enough to content the heart
of any godly man in the world, the Kingdom that he now has within
him. He need not wait till afterwards, till he goes to Heaven; but
certainly there is a Heaven in the soul of a godly man, he has
Heaven already. Many times when you go to comfort your friends in
their afflictions, you say, 'Heaven will pay for all'; indeed, you
may assuredly find Heaven pays for all already. There is a Heaven
within the souls of the saints-that is a certain truth; no soul
shall ever come to Heaven, but the soul which has Heaven come to
it first. When you die, you hope you will go to Heaven; but if you
will go to Heaven when you die, Heaven will come to you before you
die.

Now this is a great mystery, to have
the Kingdom of Heaven in the soul; no man can know this but that
soul which has it. The Heaven which is within the soul for the
present is like the white stone and the new name, that none but
those that have it can understand it. It is a miserable condition,
my brethren, to depend altogether upon creatures for our
contentment. You know that rich men account it a great happiness,
if they do not need to go to buy things by the penny as others do;
they have all things for pleasure or profit on their own ground,
and all their inheritance lies entire together, nobody comes
within them, but they have everything within themselves: there
lies their happiness. Whereas other, poorer people are fain to go
from one market to another to provide the their necessities, great
rich men have sheep and beeves, corn and clothing, and all things
else of their own within themselves, and herein they place their
happiness. But this is the happiness of a Christian, that he has
that within himself which may satisfy him more than all these.
There is a place in the first chapter of James that seems to
allude to the condition of men who have all their wealth within
themselves: 'But let patience have her perfect work that ye may be
perfect, and entire, wanting nothing' (James 1:4). The word there
used signifies to have the whole inheritance to ourselves, not a
broken inheritance, but that where all lies within themselves, not
like a man who has a piece of his estate here, and a piece there,
but one who has it all lying together. When the heart is patient
under afflictions it finds itself in such an estate as this, finds
its whole inheritance together, and all complete within
itself.

Now to show this by further
analogies: the one who is filled with good things is just like
many a man who enjoys an abundance of comforts at home, in his own
house. God grants him a pleasant home, a good wife, and fine walks
and gardens, and he has all things at home that he could desire.
Now such a man does not care much for going out. Other men are
fain to go out and see friends, because they have quarrelling and
contending at home. Many poor husbands will give this reason, if
their wives moan, and complain of their faults and shortcomings.
They make it their excuse to go out, because they can never be
quiet at home. Now we account those men most happy who have
everything at home. Those who have confined homes that are
unpleasant and evil-smelling delight to go into the fresh air, but
it is not so with many others that have good things at home. Those
who have no good cheer at home are fain to go out to friends, but
those whose tables are well furnished would as soon stay at home.
So a carnal man has little contentment in his own spirit. It is
Augustine who likens a bad conscience to a scolding wife: a man
who has a bad conscience does not care to look into his own soul,
but loves to be out, and to look into other things; he never looks
to himself.

As it is with a vessel that is full
of liquor, if you strike it, it will make no great noise, but if
it is empty then it makes a great noise; so it is with the heart,
a heart that is full of grace and goodness within will bear a
great many strokes, and never make any noise, but if an empty
heart is struck it will make a noise. When some men and women are
complaining so much, and always whining, it is a sign that there
is an emptiness in their hearts. If their hearts were filled with
grace they would not make such a noise. A man whose bones are
filled with marrow, and his veins with good blood does not
complain of the cold as others do. So a gracious heart, having the
Spirit of God within him, and his heart filled with grace has that
within him that makes him find contentment. It was a saying of
Seneca: 'Those things that I suffer will be incredibly heavy when
I cannot bear myself.' But if I am no burden to myself, if all is
quiet within my own heart, then I can bear anything. Many men
through their wickedness have burdens outside, but the greatest
burden is the wickedness of their own hearts. They are not
burdened with their sins in a godly way, for that would ease their
burden, but they still have their wickedness in its power, and so
they are burdens to themselves. The disorders of men's hearts are
great burdens to them, but many times a godly man has enough
within to content him. Virtue is content with itself, to live
well-it is a saying of Cicero, in one of his Paradoxes-it finds
enough within its own sphere for living happily. But how few are
acquainted with this mystery! Many think, O if I had what another
man has, how happily and comfortably should I live! But if you are
a Christian, whatever your condition, you have enough within
yourself. You will say, such and such men who have all things need
not be beholden to anybody.

There are many who labor and take
pains when they are young, that they might not be beholden to
others; they love to live of themselves. Now a Christian may do
so, not that he does not live upon God (I do not mean that), but
upon what he has of God within himself: he can live upon that,
although he does not enjoy the comforts that are outside himself.
That is what I mean, and those who are godly and keep close to God
in their communion with him will understand what I mean by saying
that a Christian has the supply of all his wants within himself.
Here you may see that the spirit of a Christian is a precious
spirit; a godly spirit is precious, why? Because it has enough to
make him happy within himself.

The next thing that the mystery of
contentment consists in is this, That a gracious heart gets it
supply of all things from the Covenant, and so comes to have
contentment, which is a dry thing to a carnal spirit.

There are two things in this: 1 . He
gets contentment from the Covenant in general, that is, from the
great covenant that God has made with him in Christ.

2 . He gets it from the particular
promises that God has made with him in the Covenant.

1. From the Covenant in general. I
will give you one Scripture for that, which is very striking:
'Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is
all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to
grow' (

2 Samuel 23:5). It is a wonderful
statement by David, who did not have the Covenant of Grace
revealed as fully as we have. Mark what he says: 'Although I find
not my house so', that is, so comfortable in every way as I would
wish, although it is not so, what has he got to content his
spirit? He says, 'He has made with me an everlasting covenant,'
this is what helps in everything. Some men will say, I am not thus
and thus with God, I do not find that God comes in so fully, or it
is not with my house and family as I hoped it might be, perhaps
there is this or that affliction upon my house.

Suppose the plague were to come into
your house, and it is not so safe, and you do not enjoy such
outward comfort in your house as you once did. Can you read this
Scripture and say, Although my house is not so blessed with health
as other men's houses are, although my house is not so, yet he has
made with me an everlasting covenant. I am still one in covenant
with God, the Lord has made with me an everlasting covenant. As
for these things in the world, I see they are but momentary, they
are not everlasting. I see a family in which all was well only a
week ago, and now everything is down, the plague has swept away a
great many of them, and the rest are left in sadness and mourning.
We see there is no resting in the things of this world, yet the
Lord has made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all
things. I find disorder in my heart, in my family; but the
everlasting covenant is ordered in all things, yes, and it is
sure.

Alas, there is no certainty here in
these things. We can be sure of nothing here, especially in these
times; we know that a man can be sure of little that he has, and
who can be sure of his wealth? Perhaps some of you have here lived
well and comfortably before, all was well about you, and you
thought your mountain was strong, but within a day or two you see
everything taken away from you-there is no certainty in the things
of this world; but he says, the Covenant is sure. What I venture
at sea is not sure, but here is an insurance office indeed, a
great insurance office for the saints, at which they are not
charged, except in the exercising of grace, for they may go to
this insurance office to insure everything that they venture,
either to have the thing itself, or to be paid for it. In an
insurance office you cannot be sure to have the very goods that
you insured, but if they are lost the insurers pledge themselves
to make it good to you. And this Covenant of grace that God has
made with his people is God's insurance office, and the saints in
all their fears may and ought to go to the Covenant to insure all
things, to insure their wealth and insure their lives. You will
say, How are they sure? Their lives and wealth go as well as other
people's do. But God pledges himself to make up all. And mark what
follows, 'This is all my salvation'- Why, David, will you not have
salvation from your enemies and from outward dangers, pestilence
and plague? The frame of his spirit is quieted, as though to say:
if that salvation comes, well and good, I shall praise God for it;
but what I have in the Covenant, that is my salvation, I look upon
that as enough. Yes, and he goes further, 'This is all my
salvation and all my desire'-Why, David, is there not something
else that you would like to have besides this Covenant? No, he
says, it is all involved in this. Surely, those men or women must
needs live contented lives who have all their desires? Now, says
the holy man here, this is all my desire, though he make it not to
grow. For all this Covenant, perhaps, you will not prosper in the
world as other men do, true; but I can bear that. Though God does
not make my house to grow, I have all my desires.

Thus you see how a godly heart finds
contentment n the Covenant. Many of you speak of the Covenant of
God, and of the Covenant of grace; but have you found it as
effectual as this to your souls, have you sucked this sweetness
from the Covenant, and contentment to your hearts in your sad
conditions. It is a special sign of true grace in any soul, that
when any affliction befalls him, in a kind of natural way he
repairs immediately to the Covenant. Just as a child, as soon as
ever it is in danger, need not be told to go to his father or
mother, for nature tells him so; so it is with a gracious heart:
as soon as it is in any trouble or affliction there is a new
nature which carries him to the Covenant immediately, where he
finds ease and rest. If you find that your hearts work in this
way, immediately running to the Covenant, it is an excellent sign
of true grace: so much for the general point.

2. But now for particular promises
in the Covenant grace. A gracious heart looks upon every promise
as coming from the root of the great Covenant, of grace in Christ.
Other men look upon some particular promises, that God will help
them in straits, and keep them and the like, but they do not look
at the connection of such particular promises, to the root, the
Covenant of grace. Christians miss a great deal of comfort which
they might have from the particular promises in the gospel, if
they would consider their connection to the root, the great
Covenant that God has made with them in Christ. In the times of
the law, they might rest more upon outward promises than we can in
the time of the gospel. I gave you the reason why we who live in
the times of the gospel cannot depend so much on a literal
fulfillment of the outward promises that we find in the Old
Testament, as they could in the time of the law. For there was a
special covenant, that God pleased to call a New Covenant, by way
of distinction from the other covenant, that is made with us in
Christ for eternal life. So even the law, was given to them in a
more peculiar way for an external covenant of outward blessings in
the land of Canaan, and so God dealt with them in a more external
covenant than he does now with his people. Yet godliness has the
promise of this life, and that which is to come. We may make use
of the promises for this life, but yet not so much to rest upon
the literal performance of them as they of old might. But God will
make them good in some way or other, in a spiritual way if not in
an outward way. We must lay no more upon outward promises than
this, and therefore if we lay more, we make the promise to bear
more than it will bear.

To give some examples: to believe
fully and confidently, that the plague shall not come nigh a
certain house, is, I say, to lay more upon such a promise than it
will bear. If you remember, I opened that promise in

Psalm 91. Now if I had lived in the
time of the law, perhaps I might have been somewhat more confident
of the literal performance of the promise, than I can be now in
the time of the gospel. The promise now bears no more than this,
that God has a special protection over his people, and that he
will deliver them from the evil of such an affliction, and if he
does bring such an affliction, it is more than an ordinary
providence it is a special providence that God has in it. I
thought I would give you several promises for the contentment of
the heart in the time of affliction: 'When thou passest through
the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall
not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt
not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee' (Isaiah
43:2).

Certainly, though this promise was
made in the time of the law, it will be made good to all the
saints now, one way or other, either literally or in some other
way. For we find clearly that the promise that was made to Joshua,
'I will not fail thee nor forsake thee' (Joshua 1:5) is applied to
Christians in the time of the Gospel.

So here is the way of faith in
bringing contentment by the promises: the saints of God have an
interest in all the promises that ever were made to our
forefathers, from the beginning of the world they are their
inheritance, and go on from one generation to another. By that
they come to have contentment, because they inherit all the
promises made in all the book of God.

Hebrews 13:5 shows this plainly,
that it is our inheritance, and we do not inherit less now than
they did in Joshua's time, but we inherit more.

For you will find in that place of
Hebrews that more is said than is to Joshua. To Joshua God says,
He will not leave him nor forsake him; but in this place in
Hebrews in the Greek there are five negatives, I will not, not,
not, not, not again. That is the force of it in the Greek. I say,
there are five negatives in that little sentence; as if God should
say, I will not leave you, no I will not, I will not, I will not,
with such earnestness five times together. So that not only have
we the same promises that they had, but we have them more enlarged
and more full, though still not so much in the literal sense, for
that, indeed is the least part of the promise. In

Isaiah 54:17 God made a promise:
That no weapon formed against his people should prosper, and every
tongue that shall rise against them in judgment they shall
condemn, and mark what follows, 'This is the heritage of the
servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the
Lord.' This is a good promise for a soldier, though still we ought
not to lay too much upon the literal sense. True, it holds forth
thus much, that God's protection is in special manner over the
soldier that are godly. 'And every tongue that shall rise against
thee in judgment thou shalt condemn'-this is against false witness
too. Oh you, whose friends never left you anything! you will say,
My friends died and did not leave me a groat; but I thank God, he
has provided for me. Though your father or mother died and left
you no inheritance, you have an inheritance in the promise, 'This
is their heritage.' So that there is no godly man or woman, but is
a great heir.

Therefore when you look into the
book of God and find any promise there, you may make it your own;
just as an heir who rides over a lot of fields and meadows says,
This meadow is my inheritance, and this corn field is my
inheritance, and then he sees a fine house, and says, This fine
house is my inheritance. He looks at them with a different eye
from a stranger who rides over those fields. A carnal heart reads
the promises, and reads them merely as stories, not that he has
any great interest in them. But every time a godly man reads the
Scriptures (remember this when you are reading the Scripture) and
there meets with a promise, he ought to lay his hand upon it and
say, This is part of my inheritance, it is mine, and I am to live
upon it.

This will make you contented; it is
a mysterious way of getting contentment. And there are several
other promises that bring contentment (Psalm 34:10, 37:6; Isaiah
58:10). So much for the mystery of contentment by way of the
Covenant.

There are two or three things more
that show how a godly man has contentment in a mysterious way
different from any carnal heart in the world, as follows: 14. HE
HAS CONTENTMENT BY REALIZING THE GLORIOUS THINGS OF HEAVEN TO
HIM.

He has the kingdom of Heaven as
present, and the glory that is to come; by faith he makes it
present. So the martyrs had contentment in their sufferings, for
some of them said, 'Though we have but a hard breakfast, yet we
shall have a good dinner, we shall very soon be in heaven.' 'Do
but shut your eyes', said one, 'and you shall be in heaven at
once.' 'We faint not', says the Apostle (

2 Corinthians 4:16). Why? Because
these light afflictions that are but for a moment, work for us a
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. They see heaven
before them and that contents them. When you sailors see the haven
before you, though you were mightily troubled before you could see
any land, yet when you come near the shore and can see a certain
land-mark, that contents you greatly. A godly man in the midst of
the waves and storms that he meets with can see the glory of
heaven before him and so contents himself. One drop of the
sweetness of heaven is enough to take away all the sourness and
bitterness of all the afflictions in the world. We know that one
drop of sourness, or one drop of gall will make bitter a great
deal of honey. Put a spoonful of sugar into a cup of gall or
wormwood, and it will not sweeten it; but if you put a spoonful of
gall into a cup of sugar, it will embitter that. Now it is
otherwise in heaven: one drop of sweetness will sweeten a great
deal of sour affliction, but a great deal of sourness and gall
will not embitter a soul who sees the glory of heaven that is to
come. A carnal heart has no contentment but from what he sees
before him in this world, but a godly hearts has contentment from
what he sees laid up for him in the highest heavens.

15. THE LAST THING THAT I WOULD
MENTION IS THIS, A godly man has contentment by opening and
letting out his heart to God. Other men or women are discontented,
but how do they help themselves? By abuse, by bad language.
Someone crosses them, and they have no way to help themselves but
by abuse and by bitter words, and so they relieve themselves in
that way when they are angry. But when a godly man is crossed, how
does he relieve himself?-He is aware of his cross as well as you,
but he goes to God in prayer, and there opens his heart to God and
lets out his sorrows and fears, and then can come away with a
joyful countenance. Do you find that you can come away from prayer
and not look sad? It is said of Hannah, that when she had been at
prayer her countenance was no more said (1 Samuel 1:18), she was
comforted: this is the right way to contentment.

Thus we have done with the mystery
of contentment. Now if you can but put these things together that
we have spoken of, you may see fully what an art Christian
contentment is.

3. HOW CHRIST TEACHES CONTENTMENT
Contentment is not such a poor business as many make it. They say,
'You must be content', and so on. But Paul needed to learn it, and
it is a great art and mystery of godliness to be content in a
Christian way, and it will be seen to be even more of a mystery
when we come to show what lessons a gracious heart learns when it
learns to be contented. I have learned to be contented; what
lessons have you learned? Take a scholar who has great learning
and understanding in arts and sciences; how did he begin? He
began, as we say, his ABC, and then afterwards he came to his
Testament, and Bible and accidence,* and so to his grammar, and
afterwards to his other books. [*Accidence = the part of
grammar dealing with inflexions.] So a Christian coming to
contentment is as a scholar in Christ's school, and there are many
lessons to teach the soul to bring it to this learning; every
godly man or woman is a scholar. It cannot be said of any
Christian that he is illiterate, but he is literate, a learned
man, a learned woman. Now the lessons that Christ teaches to bring
us to contentment are these: 1. THE LESSON OF
SELF-DENIAL.

It is a hard lesson. You know that
when a child is first taught, he complains: This is hard; it is
just like that. I remember Bradford the martyr said, 'Whoever has
not learned the lesson of the cross, has not learned his ABC in
Christianity.' This is where Christ begins with his scholars, and
those in the lowest form must begin with this; if you mean to be
Christians at all, you must buckle to this or you can never be
Christian. Just as no-one can be a scholar unless he learns his
ABC, so you must learn the lesson of self-denial or you can never
become a scholar in Christ's school, and be learned in this
mystery of contentment. That is the first lesson that Christ
teaches any soul, self-denial, which brings contentment, which
brings down and softens a man's heart. You know how when you
strike something soft it makes no noise, but if you strike a hard
thing it makes a noise; so with the harts of men who are full of
themselves, and hardened with self-love, if they receive a stroke
they make a noise, but a self-denying Christian yields to God's
hand, and makes no noise. When you strike a woolsack it makes no
noise because it yields to the stroke; so a self-denying heart
yields to the stroke and thereby comes to this contentment. now
there are several things in this lesson of self-denial. I will not
enter into the doctrine of self-denial, but only show you how
Christ teaches self-denial and how that brings
contentment.

1. Such a person learns to know that
he is nothing. He comes to this, to be able to say, 'Well, I see I
am nothing in myself.' That man or woman who indeed knows that he
or she is nothing, and has learned it thoroughly will be able to
bear anything. The way to be able to bear anything is to know that
we are nothing in ourselves. God says to us, 'Wilt thou set thine
eyes upon that which is not' (

Proverbs 23:5) speaking of riches.
Why, blessed God, do not you do so? you have set your heart upon
us and yet we are nothing. God would not have set our hearts upon
riches, because they are nothing, and yet God is pleased to set
his heart upon us, and we are nothing: that is God's grace, free
grace, and therefore it does not much matter what I suffer, for I
am as nothing.

2. I deserve nothing. I am nothing,
and I deserve nothing. Suppose I lack this and that thing which
others have? I am sure that I deserve nothing except it be Hell.
You will answer any of your servants, who is not content: I wonder
what you think you deserve? or your children: do you deserve it
that you are so eager to have it? You would stop their mouths
thus, and so we may easily stop our own mouths: we deserve nothing
and therefore why should we be impatient if we do not get what we
desire. If we had deserved anything we might be troubled, as in
the case of a man who has deserved well of the state or of his
friends, yet does not receive a suitable reward, it troubles him
greatly, whereas if he is conscious that he has deserved nothing,
he is content with a rebuff.

3. I can do nothing. Christ says,
'Without me you can do nothing' (John 15:5). Why should I make
much of it, to be troubled and discontented if I have not got this
and that, when the truth is that I can do nothing? If you were to
come to one who is angry because he has not got such food as he
desires, and is discontented with it, you would answer him, 'I
marvel what you do or what use you are!' Should one who will sit
still and be of no use, yet for all that have all the supply that
he could possible desire? Do but consider of what use you are in
the world, and if you consider what little need God has of you,
and what little use you are, you will not be much discontented. if
you have learned this lesson of self-denial, though God cuts you
short of certain comforts, yet you will say, 'Since I do but
little, why should I have much': this thought will bring down a
man's spirit as much as anything.

4. I am so vile that I cannot of
myself receive any good. I am not only an empty vessel, but a
corrupt and unclean vessel: that would spoil anything that comes
into it. So are all our hearts: every one of them is not only
empty of good but is like a musty bottle that spoils even good
liquor that is poured into it.

5. If God cleanses us in some
measure, and puts into us some good liquor, some grace of his
Spirit, yet we can make use of nothing when we have it, if God but
withdraws himself. If God leaves us one moment after he has
bestowed upon us the greatest gifts, and whatever abilities we can
desire, if God should say, 'I will give you them, now go and
trade', we cannot progress one foot further if God leaves us. Does
God give us gifts and abilities? Then let us fear and tremble lest
God should leave us to ourselves, for then how foully should we
abuse those gifts and abilities. You think other men and women
have memory and gifts and abilities and you would fain have
them-but suppose God should give you these, and then leave you,
you would utterly spoil them.

6. We are worse than nothing. By sin
we become a great deal worse than nothing. Sin makes us more vile
than nothing, and contrary to all good. It is a great deal worse
to have a contrariety to all that is good, than merely to have an
emptiness of all that is good. We are not empty pitchers in
respect of good, but we are like pitchers filled with poison, and
is it much for such as we are to be cut short of outward comforts?
7. If we perish we will be no loss. If God should annihilate me,
what loss would it be to anyone? God can raise up someone else in
my place to serve him in a different way.

Now put just these seven things
together and then Christ has taught you self-denial. I may call
these the several words in our lesson of self-denial.

Christ teaches the soul this, so
that, as in the presence of God on a real sight of itself, it can
say: 'Lord, I am nothing, Lord, I deserve nothing, Lord, I can do
nothing, I can receive nothing, and can make use of nothing, I am
worse than nothing, and if I come to nothing and perish I will be
no loss at all and therefore is it such a great thing for me to be
cut short here?' A man who is little in his own eyes will account
every affliction as little, and every mercy as great. Consider
Saul: There was a time, the Scripture says, when he was little in
his own eyes, and then his afflictions were but little to him:
when some would not have had him to be King but spoke
contemptuously of him, he held his peace; but when Saul began to
be big in his own eyes, then the affliction began to be great to
him.

There was never any man or woman so
contented as a self-denying man or woman. No-one ever denied
himself as much as Jesus Christ did: he gave his cheeks to the
smiters, he opened not his mouth, he was as a lamb when he was led
to the slaughter, he made no noise in the street. He denied
himself above all, and was willing to empty himself, and so he was
the most contented that ever any was in the world; and the nearer
we come to learning to deny ourselves as Christ did, the more
contented shall we be, and by knowing much of our own vileness we
shall learn to justify God.

Whatever the Lord shall lay upon us,
yet he is righteous for he has to deal with a most wretched
creature. A discontented heart is troubled because he has no more
comfort, but a self-denying man rather wonders that he has as much
as he has. Oh, says the one, I have but a little; Aye, says the
man who has learned this lesson of self-denial, but I rather
wonder that God bestows upon me the liberty of breathing in the
air, knowing how vile I am, and knowing how much sin the Lord sees
in me. And that is the way of contentment, by learning
self-denial.

8. But there is a further thing in
self-denial which brings contentment.

Thereby the soul comes to rejoice
and take satisfaction in all God's ways; I beseech you to notice
this. If a man is selfish and self-love prevails in his heart, he
will be glad of those things that suit with his own ends, but a
godly man who has denied himself will suit with and be glad of all
things that shall suit with God's ends. A gracious heart says,
God's ends are my ends and I have denied my own ends; so he comes
to find contentment in all God's ends and ways, and his comforts
are multiplied, whereas the comforts of other men are single. It
is very rare that God's way shall suit with a man's particular
end, but always God's ways suit with his own ends. if you will
only have contentment when God's ways suit with your own ends, you
can have it only now and then, but a self-denying man denies his
own ends, and only looks at the ends of God and therein he is
contented. When a man is selfish he cannot but have a great deal
of trouble and vexation, for if I regard myself, my ends are so
narrow that a hundred things will come and jostle me, and I cannot
have room in those narrows ends of my own. You know in the City
what a great deal of stir there is in narrow streets: since Thames
street is so narrow they jostle and wrangle and fight one with
another because the place is so narrow, but in the broad streets
they can go quietly. Similarly men who are selfish meet and so
jostle with one another, one man is for self in one thing, and
another man is for self in another thing, and so they make a great
deal of stir. But those whose hearts are enlarged and make public
things their ends, and can deny themselves, have room to walk and
never jostle with one another as others do. The lesson of
self-denial is the first lesson that Jesus Christ teaches men who
are seeking contentment.

2. THE VANITY OF THE
CREATURE.

That is the second lesson in
Christ's school, which he teaches those whom he would make
scholars in this art: the vanity of the creature, that whatever
there is in the creature has an emptiness in it. 'Vanity of
vanities, all is vanity,' is the lesson that the wise man learned:
the creature in itself can do us neither good nor hurt; it is all
but as wind. There is nothing in the creature that is suitable for
a gracious heart to feed upon for its good and happiness. My
brethren, the reason why you have not got contentment in the
things of the world is not because you have not got enough of
them-that is not the reason-but the reason is, because they are
not things proportionable to that immortal soul of yours that is
capable of God himself. Many men think that when they are troubled
and have not got contentment it is because they have but a little
in the world, and that if they had more then they should be
content. That is just as if a man were hungry, and to satisfy his
craving stomach he should gape and hold open his mouth to take in
the wind, and then should think that the reason why he is not
satisfied is because he has not got enough of the wind; no, the
reason is because the thing is not suitable to a craving stomach.
Yet there is really the same madness in the world: the wind which
a man takes in by gaping will as soon satisfy a craving stomach
ready to starve, as all the comforts in the world can satisfy a
soul who knows what true happiness means. You would be happy, and
you seek after such and such comforts in the creature.

Well, have you got them? do you find
your hearts satisfied as having the happiness that is suitable to
you? No, no, it is not here, but you think it is because you lack
such and such things. O poor deluded man! it is not because you
have not got enough of it, but because it is not the thing that is
proportionable to the immortal soul that God has given you. Why do
you lay out money for that which is not bread, and your labor for
that which satisfieth not? (Isaiah 55:2). You are mad people, you
seek to satisfy your stomach with that which is not bread, you
follow the win; you will never have contentment. All creatures in
the world say contentment is not in us, riches say, contentment is
not in me, pleasure says, contentment is not in me; if you look
for contentment in the creature you will fail. No, contentment is
higher. When you come into the school of Christ, Christ teaches
you that there is a vanity in all things in the world, and the
soul which, by coming into the school of Christ, by understanding
the glorious mysteries of the Gospel, comes to see the vanity of
all things in the world, is the soul that comes to true
contentment. I could give you an abundance of proverbs from
Heathens which show the vanity of all things in the world, and
they did not learn the vanity of the creature in the right school.
But when a soul comes into the School of Jesus Christ, and there
comes to see vanity in all things in the world, then such a soul
comes to have contentment. If you seek contentment elsewhere, like
the unclean spirit you seek for rest but find none.

3. A THIRD LESSON WHICH CHRIST
TEACHES A CHRISTIAN WHEN HE COMES INTO HIS SCHOOL IS THIS: He
teaches him to understand what is the one thing that is necessary,
which he never understood before. You know what he said to Martha:
'O Martha thou cumberest thyself about many things, but there is
one thing necessary.' Before, the soul sought after this and that,
but now it says, I see that it is not necessary for me to be rich,
but it is necessary for me to make my peace with God; it s not
necessary that I should live a pleasurable life in this world, but
it is absolutely necessary that I should have pardon of my sin; it
is not necessary that I should have honor and preferment, but it
is necessary that I should have God as my portion, and have my
part in Jesus Christ, it is necessary that my soul should be saved
in the day of Jesus Christ. The other things are pretty fine
indeed, and I should be glad if God would give me them, a fine
house, and income, and clothes, and advancement for my wife and
children: these are comfortable things, but they are not the
necessary things; I may have these and yet perish for ever, but
the other is absolutely necessary. No matter how poor I am, I may
have what is absolutely necessary: thus Christ instructs the soul.
Many of you have had some thoughts about this, that it is indeed
necessary for you to provide for your souls, but when you come to
Christ's school, Christ causes the fear of eternity to fall upon
you, and causes such a real sight of the great things of eternity,
and the absolute necessity of those things, that it possesses your
heart with fear and takes you off from all other things in the
world.

It is said of Pompey, that when he
was carrying corn to Rome at a time of dearth, he was in a great
deal of danger from storms at sea, but he said, 'We must go on, it
is necessary that Rome should be relieved, but it is not necessary
that we should live.' So, certainly, when the soul is once taken
up with the things that are of absolute necessity, it will not be
much troubled about other things. What are the things that
disquiet us here but some by-matters in this world? And it is
because our hearts are not taken up with the one absolutely
necessary thing. Who are the men who are most discontented, but
idle persons, persons who have nothing to occupy their minds?
Every little thing disquiets and discontents them; but in the case
of a man who has business of great weight and consequence, if all
things go well with his great business which is in his head, he is
not aware of meaner things in the family. On the other hand a man
who lies at home and has nothing to do finds fault with
everything. So it is with the heart: when the heart of a man has
nothing to do, but to be busy about creature-comforts, every
little thing troubles him; but when the heart is taken up with the
weighty things of eternity, with the great things of eternal life,
the things of here below that disquieted it before are things now
of no consequence to him in comparison with the other-how things
fall out here is not much regarded by him, if the one thing that
is necessary is provided for.

4. THE SOUL COMES TO UNDERSTAND IN
WHAT RELATION IT STANDS TO THE WORLD.

By that I mean as follows, God comes
to instruct the soul effectually through Christ by his Spirit, on
what terms it lives here in the world, in what relation it stands.
While I live in the world my condition is to be but a pilgrim, a
stranger, a traveler, and a soldier. Now rightly to understand
this, not only being taught it by rote, so that I can speak the
words over, but when my soul is possessed with the consideration
of this truth, that God has set me in this world, not as in my
home but as a mere stranger and a pilgrim who is travelling to
another home, and that I am here a soldier in my warfare, I say, a
right understanding of this is a mighty help to contentment in
whatever befalls one.

For instance, when a man is at home,
if things are not according to his desire he will find fault and
is not content; but if a man travels, perhaps he does not meet
with conveniences as he desires-the servants in the house are not
at his beck or are not as diligent as his own servants were, and
his diet is not as at home, and his bed not as at home-yet this
thought may moderate his spirit: I am a traveler and I must not be
finding fault, I am in another man's house, and it would be bad
manners to find fault in someone else's house, even though things
are not as much to my liking as at home.

If a man meets with bad weather, he
must be content; it is travellers' fare, we say. Both fair weather
and foul are the common travellers' fare and we must be content
with it. Of course, if a man were at home and the rain poured into
his house, he would regard it as an intolerable hardship; but when
he is travelling, he is not so troubled about rain and storms.
When you are at sea, though you have not as many things as you
have at home, you are not troubled at it; you are contented. Why?
Because you are at sea.

You are not troubled when storms
arise, and though many things are otherwise than you would have
them at home you are still quieted with the fact that you are at
sea. When sailors are at sea they do not care what clothes they
have, though they are pitched and tarred, and but a clout about
their necks, and any old clothes. They think of when they come
home: then they shall have their fine silk stockings and suits,
and laced bands, and such things, and shall be very fine. So they
are contented while away, with the thought that it shall be
different when they come home, and though they have nothing but
salt meat, and a little hard fare, yet when they come to their
houses then they shall have anything.

Thus it should be with us in this
world, for the truth is, we are all in this world but as seafaring
men, tossed up and down on the waves of the sea of this world, and
our haven is Heaven; here we are travelling, and our home is a
distant home in another world. Indeed some men have better
comforts than others in travelling, and it is truly a great mercy
of God to us in England that we can travel with such delight and
comfort, much more so than they can in other countries, and
through God's mercy we have as great comforts in our travelling to
Heaven in England as in any place under Heaven. Though we meet
with travellers' fare sometimes, yet it should not be grievous to
us. The Scripture tells us plainly that we must behave ourselves
here as pilgrims and strangers: 'Dearly beloved, I beseech you as
strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war
against the soul' (1 Peter 2:11).

Consider what your condition is, you
are pilgrims and strangers; so do not think to satisfy yourselves
here. When a man comes into an inn and sees there a fair cupboard
of plate, he is not troubled that it is not his own.- Why? Because
he is going away. So let us not be troubled when we see that other
men have great wealth, but we have not.-Why? We are going away to
another country; you are, as it were, only lodging here, for a
night. If you were to live a hundred years, in comparison to
eternity it is not as much as a night, it is as though you were
travelling, and had come to an inn. And what madness is it for a
man to be discontented because he has not got what he sees there,
seeing he may be going away again within less than a quarter of an
hour? You find the same in David: this was the argument that took
David's heart away from the things of this world, and set him on
other things: 'I am a stranger in the earth, hide not thy
commandments from me' (Psalm 119:19). I am a stranger in the
earth-what then?-then, Lord, let me have the knowledge of your
commandments and it is sufficient. As for the things of the earth
I do not set store by them, whether I have much or little, but
hide not thy commandments from me, Lord, let me know the rule that
I should guide my life by.

Then again, we are not only
travelers but soldiers: this is the condition in which we are here
in this world, and therefore we ought to behave ourselves
accordingly. The Apostle makes use of this argument in writing to
Timothy: 'Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of
Jesus Christ' (2 Timothy 2:3).

The very thought of the condition of
a soldier is enough to still his disquiet of heart. When he is
away, he does not enjoy such comforts in his quarters as he has in
his own home: perhaps a man who had his bed and curtains drawn
about him, and all comforts in his chamber, has now sometimes to
lie on straw and he thinks to himself, I am a soldier and it is
suitable to my condition. He must have his bed warmed at home, but
he must lie out in the fields when he is a soldier, and the very
thought of the condition in which he stands, calms him in all
things. Yes, and he goes rejoicing, to think that this is only
suitable to the condition in which God has put him. So it should
be with us in respect of this world. What an unseemly thing it
would be to see a soldier go whining up and down with his finger
in his eye, complaining, that he does not have hot meat every
meal, and his bed warmed as he did at home! Now Christians know
that they are in their warfare, they are here in this world
fighting and combating with the enemies of their souls and their
eternal welfare, and they must be willing to endure hardness here.
A right understanding of this fact that God has put them into such
a condition is what will make them content, especially when they
consider that they are certain of the victory and that ere long
they shall triumph with Jesus Christ; then all their sorrows shall
be done away, and their tears wiped from their eyes. A soldier is
content to endure hardness though he does not know that he shall
have the victory, but a Christian knows himself to be a soldier,
and knows that he shall conquer and triumph with Jesus Christ to
all eternity.

And that is the fourth lesson that
Christ teaches the soul when he brings it to his school to learn
the art of contentment: he makes him understand thoroughly the
relation in which he has placed him to this world.

5. CHRIST TEACHES US WHEREIN
CONSISTS ANY GOOD THAT IS TO BE ENJOYED IN ANY CREATURE IN THE
WORLD.

We have taught before that there is
a vanity in the creature, that is, considered in itself, yet
though there is a vanity in the creature in itself, in respect of
satisfying the soul for its portion, yet there is some goodness in
the creature, some desirableness. Now wherein does this consist?
It consists not in the nature of the creature itself, for that is
nothing but vanity, but it consists in its reference to the first
being of all things: this is a lesson that Christ teaches. If
there is any good in wealth or in any comfort in this world, it is
not so much that it pleases my sense or that it suits my body, but
that it has reference to God, the first being, that by these
creatures somewhat of God's goodness might be conveyed to me, and
I may have a sanctified use of the creature to draw me nearer to
God, that I may enjoy more of God, and be made more serviceable
for his glory in the place where he has set me: this is the good
of the creature. Oh, that we were only instructed in this lesson,
and understood, and thoroughly believed this! No creature in all
the world has any goodness in it any further than it has reference
to the first infinite supreme good of all, that so far as I can
enjoy God in it, so far it is good to me, and so far as I do not
enjoy God in it, so far there is no goodness in any creature. How
easy it would be, if we really believed that, to be contented!
Suppose a man had great wealth only a few years ago, and now it is
all gone-I would only ask this man, When you had your wealth, in
what did you reckon the good of that wealth to consist? A carnal
heart would say, Anybody might know that: it brought me in so much
a year, and I could have the best fare, and be a man of repute in
the place where I live, and men regarded what I said; I might be
clothed as I would, and lay up portions for my children: the good
of my wealth consisted in this. Now such a man never came into the
school of Christ to know in what the good of an estate consisted,
so no marvel if he is disquieted when he has lost his estate. But
when a Christian, who has been in the school of Christ, and has
been instructed in the art of contentment, has some wealth, he
thinks, In that I have wealth above my brethren, I have an
opportunity to serve God the better, and I enjoy a great deal of
God's mercy conveyed to my soul through the creature, and hereby I
am enabled to do a great deal of good: in this I reckon the good
of my wealth. And now that God has taken this away from me, if he
will be pleased to make up the enjoyment of himself some other
way, will call me to honor him by suffering, and if I may do God
as much service now by suffering, that is, by showing forth the
grace of his Spirit in my sufferings as I did in prosperity, I
have as much of God as I had before. So if I may be led to God in
my low condition, as much as I was in my prosperous condition, I
have as much comfort and contentment as I had before.

Objection. You will say, it is true
that if I could honor God in my low estate as much as in my
prosperous estate then it would be something, but how can that be?
Answer. You must know that the special honor which God has from
his creatures in this world is the manifestation of the graces of
his Spirit. It is true that God gets a great deal of honor when a
man is in a public place, and so is able to do a great deal of
good, to countenance godliness, and discountenance sin, but the
main thing is in our showing forth virtues of him who has called
us out of darkness into his marvellous light. If I can say that,
through God's mercy in my affliction, I find the graces of God's
Spirit working as strongly in me as ever they did when I had my
wealth, I am where I was; indeed, I am in quite as good a
condition, for I have the same good now that I had in my
prosperous estate. I reckoned the good of it only in my enjoyment
of God, and honoring of God, and now God has blessed the lack of
it to stir up the graces of his Spirit in my soul. This is the
work that God calls me to now, and I must consider God to be most
honored when I do the work that he calls me to; he set me to work
in my prosperous estate to honor him at that time in that
condition, and now he sets me to work to honor him at this time in
this condition. God is most honored when I can turn from one
condition to another, according as he calls me to it.

Would you account yourselves to be
honored by your servants, if when you set them about a work that
has some excellence, they will go on and on, and you cannot get
them off from it? However good the work may be, yet if you call
them off to another work, you expect them to manifest enough
respect to you, as to be content to come off from that, though
they are set about a lesser work, if it is more useful to your
ends. In the same way you were in a prosperous estate, and there
God was calling you to some service that you took pleasure in; but
suppose God said: 'I will use you in a suffering condition, and I
will have you to honor me in that way.'? This is how you honor
God, that you can turn this way or that way, as God calls you to
it. Thus having learned this, that the good of the creature
consists in the enjoyment of God in it, and the honoring of God by
it, you can be content, because you have the same good that you
had before, and that is the fifth lesson.

6. CHRIST TEACHES THE SOUL WHOM HE
BRINGS INTO THIS SCHOOL IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR OWN
HEARTS.

You must learn this or you will
never learn contentment. You must learn to know your own hearts
well, to be good students of your own hearts. You cannot all be
scholars in the arts and sciences in the world, but you may all be
students of your own hearts. Many of you cannot read in the Book,
but God expects you every day to turn over a leaf in your own
hearts. You will never get any skill in this mystery of
contentment, except you study the book of your own hearts. Sailors
have their books which they study, those who will be good
navigators, and scholars have their books, those who study Logic
have their books according to that, and those that study Rhetoric
and Philosophy have their books according to that, and those that
study Divinity have their books whereby they come to be helped in
the study of Divinity, but a Christian, next to the Book of God,
is to look into the book of his own heart, and to read over that,
and this will help you to contentment in three ways: 1. By
studying your heart you will come soon to discover wherein your
discontent lies. When you are discontented you will find out the
root of any discontent if you study your heart well. Many men and
women are discontented, and the truth is they do not know why;
they think this and the other thing is the cause. But a man or
woman who knows their own heart will soon find out where the root
of their discontent lies, that it lies in some corruption and
disorder of the heart, that through God's mercy I have now found
out. It is similar to the case of a little child who is very
awkward in the house, and when a stranger comes in he does not
know what the matter is. Perhaps he will give the child a rattle,
or a nut, or something of the sort to quiet it, but when the nurse
comes she knows the temper and disposition of the child, and
therefore knows how to calm it. It is just the same here: when we
are strangers to our own hearts we are powerfully discontented,
and do not know how to quiet ourselves, because we do not know
wherein the disquiet lies, but if we are very well versed in our
own hearts, when anything happens to unsettle us, we soon find out
the cause of it, and so quickly become quiet. When a man has a
watch, and understand the use of every wheel and pin, if it goes
amiss he will soon find out the cause of it; but when someone has
no skill in a watch, if it goes amiss he does not know what is the
matter, and therefore cannot mend it. So indeed our hearts are as
a watch, and there are many wheels and windings and turnings
there, and we should labor to know our hearts well, that when they
are out of tune, we may know what is the matter.

2. This knowledge of our hearts will
help us to contentment, because by it we shall come to know what
best suits our condition. A man who does not know his own heart
does not think what need he has of affliction, and for that reason
is uneasy, but when God comes with afflictions to the man or woman
who have studied their own hearts, they can say, 'I would not have
been without this affliction for anything in the world, God has so
suited this affliction to my condition, and has come in such a way
that if this affliction had not come I am afraid I should have
fallen into sin.' When a poor countryman takes medicine, the
medicine works, but he thinks it will kill him, because he does
not know the bad humours that are in his body, and therefore he
does not understand how suitable the medicine is for him. But if a
doctor takes a purge, and it makes him extremely sick: 'I like
this the better' he says, 'it is only working on the humor that I
know is the cause of my disease', and because of that such a man
who has knowledge and understanding of his body, and the cause of
his disorder, is not troubled or disturbed. So would we be if we
did but know the disorders of our own hearts. Carnal men and women
do not know their own spirits, and therefore they fling and vex
themselves at every affliction that befalls them, they do not know
what disorders are in their hearts which may be healed by their
afflictions, if it pleases God to give them a sanctified use of
them.

3. By knowing their own hearts they
know what they are able to manage, and by this means they come to
be content. Perhaps the Lord takes away many comforts from them
that they had before, or denies them some things that they hoped
to have got. Now by knowing their hearts they know that they were
not able to manage such wealth, and they were not able to manage
such prosperity. God saw it, and, a poor soul says, 'I am in some
measure convinced by looking into my own heart that I was not able
to manage such a condition.' A man desires greedily to hold on to
more than he is able to manage, and so undoes himself. Countrymen
observe that if they over-stock their land, it will quickly spoil
them, and so a wise husbandman who knows how much his ground will
bear is not troubled that he has not as much stock as others-why?
Because he knows he has not got enough ground for as great a
stock, and that quiets him. Many men and women who do not know
their own hearts would fain have as prosperous a position as
others, but if they knew their own hearts they would know that
they were not able to manage it.

Suppose one of your little children
of three or four were crying for the coat of her sister who is
twelve or perhaps even twenty, and said, 'Why may not I have a
coat as long as my sister's?' If she had, it would soon trip up
her heels, and scratch her face. But when the child comes to
understanding, she is not discontented because her coat is not as
long as her sister's, but says, 'My coat fits me,' and therein she
is content. So if we come to understanding in the school of Christ
we will not cry, Why have I not got such wealth as others have?,
but, The Lord sees that I am not able to manage it and I see it
myself by knowing my own heart. There are some children who, if
they see a knife, will cry for it because they do not know their
strength and that they are not able to manage it, but you know
they are not able to manage it and therefore you will not give it
them, and when they come to sufficient understanding to know that
they are not able to manage it, they will not cry for it.
Similarly we would not cry for some things if we knew that we were
not able to manage them. When you vex and fret for what you have
not got, I may say to you as Christ said, 'You know not of what
spirit you are.' It was a saying of Cecolampadius to Parillus,
when they were speaking about his extreme poverty, 'Not so poor,
though I have been very poor, yet I would be poorer; I could be
willing to be poorer than I am.' As if he were to say, The truth
is, the Lord knew what was more suitable for me, and I knew that
my own heart was such that a poor condition was more suitable to
me than a rich. So certainly would we say, if we knew our own
hearts, that such and such a condition is better for me than if it
had been otherwise.

7. THE SEVENTH LESSON BY WHICH
CHRIST TEACHES CONTENTMENT IS the burden of a prosperous outward
condition. One who comes into Christ's school to be instructed in
this art never attains to any great skill in it until he comes to
understand the burden that is in a prosperous
condition.

Objection. You will say, 'What
burden is there in a prosperous condition?' Answer. Yes, there is
certainly a great burden, and it needs great strength to bear it.
Just as men need strong brains to bear strong wine, so they need
strong spirits to bear prosperous conditions, and not to do
themselves hurt. Many men and women look at the shine and glitter
of prosperity, but they little think of the burden. There is a
fourfold burden in a prosperous condition.

1. There is a burden of trouble. A
rose has its prickles, and the Scripture says that he that will be
rich pierceth himself through with many sorrows (

1 Timothy 6:10). If a man's heart is
set upon being rich, such a man will pierce himself through with
many sorrows: he looks upon the delight and glory of riches which
appears outwardly, but he does not consider what piercing sorrows
he may meet with in them. The consideration of the trouble that is
in a prosperous condition, I have many times thought of, and I
cannot think of anything better to compare it with than to
travelling in some open country, where round about is very fair
and sandy ground, and you see a town a great way off in a valley
and you thin, Oh how well situated that town is; but when you come
and ride into the town, you ride through a dirty lane and through
a lot of fearfully dirty holes. You could not see the dirty lane
and holes when you were two or three miles off. In the same way,
sometimes we look upon the prosperity of men and think, this man
lives well and comfortably, but if we only knew what troubles he
has in his family, in his possessions, in his dealings with men,
we would not think his position so happy. A man may have a very
fine new shoe, but nobody knows where it pinches him except the
one who has it on; so you think certain men are happy, but they
may have many troubles that you little think of.

2. There is a burden of danger in
it. Men in a prosperous position are in a great deal of danger.
You see sometimes in the evening that when you light up your
candles, the moths and gnats will fly up and down in the candle
and scorch their wings, and they fall down dead there. So there is
a great deal of danger in a prosperous estate, for men who are set
upon a pinnacle on high are in greater danger than other men are.
Honey, we know, invites bees and wasps to it, and the sweet of
prosperity invites the Devil and temptation. Men in a prosperous
position are subject to many temptations that other men are not
subject to. The Scripture calls the Devil Beelzebub, that is, the
God of flies, and so Beelzebub comes where the honey of prosperity
is. Yes, they are in very great danger of temptations who are in a
prosperous condition. The dangers that men in a prosperous
position have more than others should be considered by those who
are lower. Think to yourself: though they are above me, yet they
are in more danger than I am.

Tall trees are a great deal more
broken than low shrubs, and you know when a ship has all its sails
up in a storm, even the top sail, it is in more danger than one
which has all its sails drawn in. Similarly, men who have their
top sail and all up so finely, are more likely to be drowned,
drowned in perdition, than other men. You know what the Scripture
says, how hard it is for rich men to go into the Kingdom of
Heaven; such a text should make poor people content with their
state.

We have a striking example of this
in the children of Kohath: you will find that they were in a more
excellent position than the other Levites, but they were in more
danger than the others, and more trouble. That the children of
Kohath were in a higher position than the other Levites I will
show you from the fourth chapter of Numbers. There you find what
their position was: 'This shall be a service of the sons of Kohath
in the tabernacle of the congregation, about the most holy
things.' Mark this, the Levites were exercised about holy things,
but the service of the sons of Kohath was about the most holy
things of all. And you find in the 21st of Joshua that God honored
the other Levites, which honor the children of Aaron (being of the
families of the Kohathites, who were the children of Levi) had,
for theirs was the first lot (

Joshua 21:10) and they were
preferred before the other families of Levi. Those who were
employed in the most honorable employment had the most honorable
lot, the first lot fell to them. Thus you see how God honored the
children of the Kohathites. But the other Levites might say, 'How
has God preferred this family before us?' They are indeed honored
more than the others. But notice the burden that comes with their
honor; I will show you it out of two Scriptures. The first
is

Numbers 7:6-9, 'And Moses took the
wagons and four oxen he gave unto the sons of Gershom, according
to their service, and four wagons and eight oxen he gave unto the
sons of Merari according to their service, under the hand of
Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest'; but in the ninth verse he
says, 'Unto the sons of Kohath he gave none, because the service
of the sanctuary that belonged unto them, was, that they should
bear upon their shoulders.' Mark, the other Levites had oxen and
wagons given to them, to make their service easier, but, he says,
to the sons of Kohath he gave none, but they should bear their
service on their shoulders. And that is the reason why God was so
displeased, because they wanted more ease in God's service than
God would have them, for whereas they should have carried it upon
their shoulders, they would carry it upon a cart. Here you see the
first burden that they had, beyond what the other Levites had. And
indeed, those who are in a more honorable place than others have a
burden to carry on their shoulders that those who are under them
to not think of, while others have ways of easing their burden.
Many times those who are employed in the ministry, or the
magistracy, who sit at the stern to order the great affairs of the
commonwealth and state, though you think they have a fine life,
they lie awake when you are asleep. If you knew the burden that
lay upon their spirits, you would think that your labor and burden
were very little in comparison of theirs.

There is another burden of danger in
more than the rest, and you will find it in Numbers 4:17: 'And the
Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron saying, Cut ye not off the
tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites,
but thus do unto them that they may live and not die: When they
approach unto the most holy things, Aaron and his sons shall go in
and appoint them every one to his service and to his burden; but
they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest
they die.' Mark this text: the Lord says to Moses and Aaron, 'Cut
ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among
the Levites', cut them not off- Why? What had they done? Had they
done anything amiss? No, they had not done anything to provoke
God; but the meaning is this: take great care to instruct the
family of the Kohathites in the duty that they were to do, for,
said God, they are in a great deal of danger, serving in the most
holy things. If they go in to see the holy things more than God
would have them do, it is as much as their lives are worth, and
therefore, if you neglect them, and do not inform them thoroughly
in their duty, they would be undone, said God. They are to
administer in the most holy things, and if they should but dare to
presume to do anything otherwise than God would have them, about
those services, it would cost them their lives; and therefore do
not be careless of them, for if you neglect them you will be a
means of cutting them off. Thus you see the danger that the family
of the Kohathites were in; they were preferred before others, but
they were in more danger. So you think of certain men in a parish
who bear the sway and are employed in public service, and carry
all before them, but you do not consider their danger. And
similarly ministers stand in the forefront of all the spite and
malice of ungodly men; certainly God employs them in an honorable
service, and a service that the angels would delight in, but
though the service is honorable, above other works, yet the burden
of danger is likewise greater than the danger of men in an
inferior position. Now when the soul gets wisdom from Christ to
think of the danger that it is in, then it will be content with
the low estate in which it is. A poor man who is in a low
condition, thinks, 'I am low and others are raised, but I know now
what their burden is', and so, if he is rightly instructed in the
school of Christ, he comes to be contented.

3. In a prosperous condition there
is the burden of duty. You look only at the sweetness and comfort,
the honor and respect that they have who are in a prosperous
position, but you must consider the duty that they owe to God. God
requires more duty at their hands than at yours. You are ready to
be discontented because you have not got such gifts and abilities
as others have, but God requires more duty of those who have
greater wealth than of you who have not such wealth. Oh, you would
fain have the honor, but can you carry the burden of the duty? 4.
The last is the burden of account in a prosperous condition. Those
who enjoy great wealth and a prosperous condition have a great
account to give to God. We are all stewards, and one is a steward
to a meaner man, perhaps but to an ordinary knight, another is a
steward to a nobleman, an earl-now the steward of the meaner man
has not so much as the other under his hand, and shall he be
discontented because of this? No, he thinks, I have less, and I
will have to give the less account. So your account, in comparison
of the minister's and magistrate's, will be nothing: you are to
give an account of your own souls and so are they, you are to give
an account for your own family and so are they, but you will not
have to give account for congregations, and for towns, and cities
and countries. You think of princes and kings-Oh, what a glorious
position they are in! But what do you think of a king who has to
give account for the disorder and wickedness in a kingdom which he
might possibly have prevented? What an abundance of glory might a
prince bring to God if he bent his soul and all his thoughts to
lift up the name of God in his kingdom! Now what God loses through
the lack of this, that king, prince or governor must give an
account for. There is a saying of Chrysostom on that place in
Hebrews where it is said that men must give an account or their
souls: he wonders that any man in a public place can be saved,
because the account they have to give is so great. I remember I
have read a saying of Philip, the King of Spain: though the story
says of him that he had such a natural conscience that he
professed he would not do anything against his conscience, no, not
in secret, for gaining a world, yet when this man was to die,
'Oh', he said, 'that I had never been a king! Oh, that I had lived
a solitary and private life all my days! Then I should have died a
great deal more securely, I should with more confidence have gone
before the throne of God to give my account. This is the fruit of
my kingdom, because I had all the glory of it, it has made my
account harder to give to God'. Thus he cried out when he was to
die.

And therefore you who live in
private positions, remember this: if you come to Christ's school
and are taught this lesson, you will be quiet in your afflictions,
or in your private position, because your account is not as great
as others. There is a saying I remember meeting with in Latimer's
sermons which he was wont to use: 'The half is more than the
whole'; that is, when a man is in a mean condition, he is but half
way towards the height of prosperity that others are in, yet, he
says, this is safer though it is a meaner condition than
others.

Those who are in a high and
prosperous condition have annexed to it the burden of trouble, of
danger, of duty, and of account. And thus you see how Christ
trains up his scholars in his school, and though they are
otherwise weak, yet by his Spirit he gives them wisdom to
understand these things aright.

8. CHRIST TEACHES THEM WHAT A GREAT
AND DREADFUL EVIL IT IS TO BE GIVEN UP TO ONE'S HEART'S
DESIRES.

It is, indeed, a dreadful evil, one
of the most hideous and fearful evils that can befall any man on
the face of the earth, for God to give him up to his heart's
desires. A kindred truth is that spiritual judgments are more
fearful than any outward judgments. Now once the soul understands
these things, a man will be content when God crosses him in his
desires. You are crossed in your desires, and so you are
discontented and vexed and fretted about it; is that your only
misery, that you are crossed in your desires? No, no, you are
infinitely mistaken; the greatest misery of all is for God to give
you up to your heart's lusts and desires, to give you up to your
own counsels. So you have it in Psalm 81:11, 12: 'But my people
would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me,'-what
then?-'So I gave them up unto their own heart lust, and they
walked in their own counsels.' 'Oh let me not have such a misery
as that', said Bernard, 'for to give me what I would have, to give
me my heart's desires is one of the most hideous judgments in the
world.' In Scripture we have no certain, evident sign of a
reprobate, we cannot say, unless we knew a man had committed the
sin against the Holy Ghost, that he is a reprobate, for we do not
know what God may work upon him, but the nearest of all and the
blackest sign of a reprobate is this: for God to give a man up to
his heart's desires. All the pain of diseases, all the calamities
that can be thought of in the world are no judgments in comparison
of this.

Now when the soul comes to
understand this, it cries out, why am I so troubled that I have
not got my desires? There is nothing that God conveys his wrath
more through than a prosperous condition. I remember reading of a
Jewish tradition about Uzziah: when God struck him with leprosy,
they say that the beams of the sun darted upon the forehead of
Uzziah, and he was struck with leprosy in this way. The Scripture
says, indeed, that the priests looked upon him, but they say that
there was a special light and beam of the sun on his forehead that
revealed the leprosy to the priests, and they say that was the way
of conveying of it. Whether that was true or not, I am sure that
this is true, that the strong beams of the sun of prosperity upon
many men make them to be leprous. Would any poor man in the
country have been discontented that he was not in Uzziah's
position? He was a great King, aye, but there was the leprosy in
his forehead. The poor man might say, Though I live meanly in the
country yet I thank God my body is whole and sound. Would not any
man rather have homespun and skins of beasts to clothe himself
with, tan to have satin and velvet that had plague in it? The Lord
conveys the plague of his curse through prosperity, as much as
through any thing in the world, and therefore when the soul comes
to understand this, this makes it quiet and content.

And then, spiritual judgments are
the greatest judgments of all. The Lord lays such and such an
affliction upon my outward wealth, but what if he had taken away
my life? A man's health is a greater mercy than his wealth, and
you poor people should consider that. is the health of a man's
body better than his wealth? What then is the health of a man's
soul? That is a great deal better. The Lord has inflicted external
judgments, but he has not inflicted spiritual judgments on you, he
has not given you up to hardness of heart, and taken away the
spirit of prayer from you in your afflicted condition. Oh, then,
be of good comfort though you have outward afflictions upon you;
still your soul, your more excellent part is not afflicted. Now
when the soul comes to understand this, that here lies the sore
wrath of God, to be given up to one's desires, and to have
spiritual judgments: this quiets him, and contents him, though
outward afflictions are on him. Perhaps one of a man's children
has the fit of an ague or toothache, but his next door neighbor
has the plague, or all his children have died of it. Now shall he
be so discontented that his children have toothache when his
neighbour's children are dead? Think thus: Lord, you have laid an
afflicted condition upon me, but, Lord, you have not given me the
plague of a hard heart.

Now if you take these eight things
before mentioned, and lay them together, you may well apply that
Scripture in the 29th of Isaiah, the last verse, where it says,
'They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding; and
they that murmured shall learn doctrine.' Have there been any of
you, as I fear many may be found, who have erred in spirit, even
in regard of this truth that we are now preaching of, and many who
have murmured? Oh, that this day you might come to understand,
that Christ would bring you into his school, and teach you
understanding. 'And they that murmured shall learn doctrine'-what
doctrine shall they learn? These doctrines that I have opened to
you. And if you will but thoroughly study these lessons that I
have set before your eyes, it will be a special help and means to
cure your murmurings and repinings at the hand of God, and so you
will come to learn Christian contentment. The Lord teach you
thoroughly by his Spirit these lessons of contentment! I will only
add one more lesson in the learning of contentment and then I
shall come to the fourth head, the excellence of
contentment.

9. THE NINE AND LAST LESSON WHICH
CHRIST TEACHES Those whom he instructs in this art of contentment
is the right knowledge of God's providence, and therein are four
things.

1. The universality of providence,
wherein the soul must be thoroughly instructed in to come to this
art of contentment. To understand the universality of providence,
that is, how the providence of God goes through the whole world
and extends itself to everything. Not only that God by his
providence rules the world, and governs all things in general, but
that it reaches to every detail; not only to order the great
affairs of kingdoms, but it reaches to every man's family; it
reaches to every person in the family; it reaches to every
condition; yea, to every happening, to everything that falls out
concerning you in every particular: not one hair falls from your
head, not a sparrow to the ground, without the providence of God.
Nothing befalls you, good or evil, but there is a providence of
the infinite eternal first Being in that thing; and therein is
God's infiniteness, that it reaches to the least things, to the
least worm that is under your feet.

Then much more does it reach to you
who are a rational creature; the providence of God is more special
towards rational creatures than any others. Now to understand in a
spiritual way the universality of providence in every particular
happening from morning to night every day, that there is nothing
that befalls you but there is a hand of God in it-this is from
God, and is a great help to contentment. Every man will grant the
truth of the thing, that it is so, but as the Apostle says,
in

Hebrews 11:3: 'By faith we
understand that the worlds were made'; by faith we understand it.
Why by faith? we can understand by reason that no finite thing can
be from itself, and therefore that the world could not be of
itself, but we understand it by faith in another way than by
reason. So whatever we understand of God in providence, yet when
Christ takes u into his school we come to understand it by faith
in a better manner than we do by reason.

2. The efficacy that is in
providence. That is, that the providence of God goes on in all
things, with strength and power, and will not to be altered by our
power. Suppose we are discontented and vexed and troubled, and we
fret and rage, yet we need not think we will alter the course of
providence by our discontent. Some of Job's friends, when they saw
that he was impatient, said to him: 'Shall the earth be forsaken
for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?' (Job
18:4).

So I may say to every discontented,
impatient heart: what, shall the providence of God change its
course for you? Do you think it such a weak thing, that because it
does not please you it must alter its course? Whether or not you
are content the providence of God will go on, it has an efficacy
of power, of virtue, to carry all things before it. Can you make
one hair black or white with all the stir that you are making?
When you are in a ship at sea which has all its sails spread with
a full gale of wind, and is swiftly sailing, can you make it stand
still by running up and down in the ship? No more can you make the
providence of God alter and change its course with your vexing and
fretting; it will go on with power, do what you can. Do but
understand the power and efficacy of providence and it will be a
mighty means helping you to learn this lesson of
contentment.

3. The infinite variety of the works
of providence, and yet the order of things, one working towards
another. there is an infinite variety of the works of God in an
ordinary providence, and yet they all work in an orderly way. We
put these two things together, for God in his providence causes a
thousand thousand things to depend one upon another. There are an
infinite number of wheels, as I may say, in the works of
providence; put together all the works that ever God did from all
eternity or ever will do, and they all make up but one work, and
they have been as several wheels that have had their orderly
motion to attain to the end that God from all eternity has
appointed.

We, indeed, look at things by
pieces, we look at one detail and do not consider the relation
that one thing has to another, but God looks at all things at
once, and sees the relation that one thing has to another. When a
child looks at a clock, it looks first at one wheel, and then at
another wheel: he does not look at them all together or the
dependence that one has upon another; but the workman has his eyes
on them all together and sees the dependence of all, one upon
another: so it is in God's providence. Now notice how this works
to contentment: when a certain passage of providence befalls me,
that is one wheel, and it may be that if this wheel were stopped,
a thousand other things might come to be stopped by this. In a
clock, stop but one wheel and you stop every wheel, because they
are dependant upon one another. So when God has ordered a thing
for the present to be thus and thus, how do you know how many
things depend upon this thing? God may have some work to do twenty
years hence that depends on this passage of providence that falls
out this day or this week.

And here, by the way, we may see
what a great deal of evil there is in discontent, for you would
have God's providence altered in such and such a detail: now if it
were only in that detail, and that had relation to nothing else it
would not be so much, but by your desire to have your will in such
a detail, you may cross God in a thousand things that he has to
bring about, because it is possible that a thousand things may
depend upon that one thing that you would fain have otherwise than
it is. It is just as if a child should cry out and say, 'Let that
one wheel stop'; though he says only one wheel, yet if that were
to stop, it is as much as if he should say they must all
stop.

So in providence: let but this one
passage of providence stop-it is as much as if a thousand stopped.
Let me therefore be quiet and content, for though I am crossed in
some one particular thing God attains his end; at least, his end
may be furthered in a thousand things by this one thing that I am
crossed in. Therefore let a man consider, this is an act of
providence, and how do I know what God is about to do, and how
many things depend upon this providence? Now we are willing to be
crossed in one thing, so that our friend may attain to what he
desires in a thousand things. If you have a love and friendship to
God, be willing to be crossed in a few things, that the Lord may
have his work go on in general, in a thousand other things. Now
that is the third thing to be understood in God's providence,
which Christ teaches those whom he instructs in the art of
contentment.

4. Christ teaches them the knowledge
of providence, that is, The knowledge of God's usual way in his
dealings with his people more particularly. The other is the
knowledge of God in his providence in general. But the right
understanding of the way of God in his providence towards his
people and saints is a notable lesson to help us in the art of
contentment. If we once get to know a man's way and course we may
better suit, and be content to live with him, than before we got
to know his way and course. When we come to live in a society with
men and women, the men and women may be good, but till we come to
know their way and course and disposition, many things may cross
us, and we think they are very hard, but when we come to be
acquainted with their way and spirits, then we can suit and cotton
with them very well; the reason of our trouble is because we do
not understand their way. So it is with you: those who are but as
strangers to God, and do not understand the way of God are
troubled with the providences of God, and they think them very
strange and cannot tell what to make of them, because they do not
understand the ordinary course and way of God towards his people.
Sometimes if a stranger comes into a family and sees certain
things done, he wonders what is the matter, but those who are
acquainted with it are not at all troubled by it. When servants
first come together and do not know one another, they may be
froward and discontented, but when they get to be acquainted with
one another's ways, then they are more contented; just so it is
when we first come to understand God's ways.

But you will say, What do you
understand by God's ways? By that I mean three things, and when we
get to know them we shall not wonder so much at the providence of
God, but be quiet and contented with them: 1. GOD'S ORDINARY
COURSE IS THAT HIS PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD SHOULD BE IN AN AFFLICTED
CONDITION.

God has revealed in his Word, and we
may there find he has set it down as his ordinary way even from
the beginning of the world to this day, but more especially in the
times of the Gospel, that his people here should be in an
afflicted condition. Now men who do not understand this stand and
wonder to hear that the people of God are afflicted, and their
enemies prosper in their way. When those who seek God in his way
and seek for reformation are afflicted, wounded and spoiled, and
their enemies prevail, they wonder at it; but one who is in the
school of Christ is taught by Jesus Christ that God by his eternal
counsels has set this as his course and way, to bring up his
people in this world in an afflicted condition. Therefore the
Apostle says, 'Account it not strange concerning the fiery trial'
(1 Peter 4:12). We are not therefore to be discontented with it,
seeing God has set such a course and way, and we know it is the
will of God that it should be so.

2. USUALLY WHEN GOD INTENDS THE
GREATEST MERCY TO ANY OF HIS PEOPLE HE BRINGS THEM INTO THE LOWEST
CONDITION.

God seems to go quite across and
work in a contrary way: when he intends the greatest mercies to
his people he first usually brings them into a very low
conditions. If it is a bodily mercy, an outward mercy that he
intends to bestow, he brings them physically low, and outwardly
low; if it is a mercy in their possessions that he intends to
bestow, he brings them low in that and then raises them; and in
their reputations, he brings them low there, and then raises them;
and in their spirits God ordinarily brings their spirits low and
then raises their spirits. Usually the people of God, before the
greatest comforts, have the greatest afflictions and sorrows. Now
those who understand God's ways think that when God brings his
people into sad conditions, he is leaving and forsaking them, and
that God does not intend any great good to them. But a child of
God, who is instructed in this way of God, is not troubled; 'My
condition is very low,' he says, 'but this is God's way when he
intends the greatest mercy, to bring men under the greatest
afflictions.' When he intended to raise Joseph to be second in the
kingdom, God cast him into a dungeon a little before. So when God
intended to raise David and set him upon the throne, he made him
to be hunted as a partridge in the mountains (

1 Samuel 26:29). God dealt this way
with his Son: Christ himself went into glory by suffering (Hebrews
2:10); and if God so deals with his own Son, much more with his
people.

A little before daybreak you will
observe it is darker than it was any time before, so God will make
our conditions a little darker before the mercy comes. When God
bestowed the last great mercy at Naseby* we were in a very low
condition; God knew what he had to do beforehand, he knew that his
time was coming for great mercies: it is the way of God to do so.
[*In 1645, the parliamentary army won a decisive victory
against the Royalists at Naseby, Northamptonshire. The messages
which comprise this book were preached by Burroughs in that
year.] Be instructed aright in this course and way that God is
accustomed to walk in and that will greatly help us to
contentment.

3. IT IS THE WAY OF GOD TO WORK BY
CONTRARIES, TO TURN THE GREATEST EVIL INTO THE GREATEST
GOOD.

To grant great good after great evil
is one thing, and to turn great evil into the greatest good is
another, and yet that is God's way: the greatest good that God
intends for his people, he many times works out of the greatest
evil, the greatest light is brought out of the greatest darkness.
I remember, Luther has a striking expression for this: he says,
'It is the way of God: he humbles that he might exalt, he kills
that he might make alive, he confounds that he might glorify.'
This is the way of God, he says, but every one does not understand
it. This is the art of arts, and the science of sciences, the
knowledge of knowledges, to understand this, that God when he will
bring life, brings it out of death, he brings joy out of sorrow,
and he brings prosperity out of adversity, yea and many times
brings grace out of sin, that is, makes use of sin to work
furtherance of grace. it is the way of God to bring all good out
of evil, not only to overcome the evil, but to make the evil work
toward the good. Now when the soul comes to understand this, it
will take away our murmuring and bring contentment into spirits.
But I fear there are but few who understand it aright; perhaps
they read of such things, and hear such things in a sermon, but
they are not instructed in this by Jesus Christ, that this is the
way of God, to bring the greatest good out of the greatest
evil.

4.THE EXCELLENCE OF CONTENTMENT
Having concluded our study of the lessons we are to learn, we come
to the next sub-division, which is, the excellence of this grace
of contentment.

There is, indeed, a great deal of
excellence in contentment; that is, as it were, another lesson for
us to learn.

The apostle says 'I have learned',
as if he should say: Blessed be God for this! Oh! it is a mercy of
God to me that I have learned this lesson, I find so much good in
this contentment, that I would not for a world be without
it.

'I have learned it', he
says.

Now even the heathen philosophers
had a sight of the great excellence that is in contentment. I
remember reading of Antisthenes, who desired of his gods (speaking
after the heathenish way) nothing in this world to make his life
happy but contentment, and if he might have anything that he would
desire to make his life happy, he would ask of them that he might
have the spirit of Socrates, to be able to bear any wrong, any
injuries that he met with, and to continue in a quiet temper of
spirit whatsoever befell him; for that was the temper of Socrates:
whatever befell him he continued the same man, whatever cross
befell him, however great, nobody could perceive any alteration of
his spirit. This a heathen attained to by the strength of nature,
and a common work of the Spirit. now Antisthenes saw such an
excellence in this spirit that, as Solomon when God said to him:
'What shall I give thee?' asked of him wisdom, so he said: 'If the
gods should put it to me to know what I would have, I would desire
this thing, that I might have the spirit of Socrates.' He saw what
a great excellence there was in this; and certainly a Christian
may see an abundance of excellence in it. I shall labor to set it
out to you in this chapter that you might be in love with this
grace of contentment.

1. By contentment we come to give
God the worship that is due to him. It is a special part of the
divine worship that we owe to God, to be content in a Christian
way, as has been shown to you. I say it is a special part of the
divine worship that the creature owes to the infinite Creator, in
that I tender the respect that is due from me to the Creator. The
word that the Greeks have that signifies, 'to worship' is the same
as to come and crouch before someone, as if a dog should come
crouching to you, and be willing to lie down at your feet. So the
creature in the apprehension of its own baseness, and the infinite
excellence that is in God above it, when it comes to worship God,
comes and crouches to this God, and lies down at the feet of God:
then the creature worships God. When you see a dog come crouching
to you, and by holding your hand over him, you can make him lie
down at your feet, then consider, thus should you do before the
Lord: you should come crouching to him, and lie down at his feet,
even on your backs or bellies, to lie down in the dust before him
so as to be willing that he should do with you what he will. Just
as sometimes you may turn a dog this way or that way, up and down,
with your hand, and there he lies before you, according to your
showing him with your hand; so when the creature shall come and
lie down thus before the Lord, then a creature worships God and
tenders the worship that is due to him. Now in what disposition of
heart do we thus crouch to God more than when we have this state
of contentment in all the conditions that God disposes us to? This
is crouching to God's disposal, to be like the poor woman of
Canaan, who when Christ said, 'It is not fit to give children's
meat to dogs', said 'The dogs have crumbs', I am a dog I confess,
but let me have only a crumb. And so when the soul shall be in
such a disposition as to lie down and say, 'Lord, I am but as a
dog, yet let me have a crumb', then it highly honors God. It may
be that some of you have not your table spread as others have, but
God gives you crumbs; now, says the poor woman, dogs have crumbs,
and when you can find your hearts thus submitting to God, to be
but as a dog, and can be contented and bless God for any crumb, I
say this is a great worship of God.

You worship God more by this than
when you come to hear a sermon, or spend half an hour, or an hour,
in prayer, or when you come to receive a sacrament. These are the
acts of God's worship, but they are only external acts of worship,
to hear and pray and receive sacraments. But this is the soul's
worship, to subject itself thus to God. You who often will worship
God by hearing, and praying, and receiving sacraments, and yet
afterwards will be froward and discontented-know that God does not
regard such worship, he will have the soul's worship, in this
subjecting of the soul unto God. Note this, I beseech you: in
active obedience we worship God by doing what pleases God, but by
passive obedience we do as well worship God by being pleased with
what God does. now when I perform a duty, I worship God, I do what
pleases God; why should I not as well worship God when I am
pleased with what God does? As it was said of Christ's obedience:
Christ was active in his passive obedience, and passive in his
active obedience; so the saints are passive in their active
obedience, they are first passive in the reception of grace, and
then active. And when they come to passive obedience, they are
active, they put forth grace in active obedience. When they
performed actions to God, then the soul says: 'Oh! that I could do
what pleases God!' When they come to suffer any cross: 'Oh, that
what God does might please me!' I labor to do what pleases God,
and I labor that what God does shall please me: here is a
Christian indeed, who shall endeavor both these. It is but one
side of a Christian to endeavor to do what pleases God; you must
as well endeavor to be pleased with what God does, and so you will
come to be a complete Christian when you can do both, and that is
the first thing in the excellence of this grace of
contentment.

2. IN CONTENTMENT THERE IS MUCH
EXERCISE OF GRACE.

There is much strength of grace,
yea, there is much beauty of grace in contentment; there is much
exercise of grace, strength of grace, and beauty of grace: I put
all these together.

1. Much exercise of grace. There is
a compound of grace in contentment: there is faith, and there is
humility, and love, and there is patience, and there is wisdom,
and there is hope; almost all graces are compounded. It is an oil
which has the ingredients of every kind of grace; and therefore,
though you cannot see the particular grace; yet in this oil you
have it all.

God sees the graces of his Spirit
exercised in a special manner, and this pleases God at the heart
to see the graces of his Spirit exercised. In one action that you
do you may exercise one grace especially, but in contentment you
exercise a great many graces at once.

2. There is a great deal of strength
of grace in contentment. It argues a great deal of strength in the
body for it to be able to endure hard weather and whatever comes,
and yet not to be much altered by it; so it argues strength of
grace to be content. You who complain of weakness of memory, of
weakness of gifts, you cannot do what others do in other things;
but have you this gracious heart-contentment, that has been
explained to you? I know that you have attained to strength of
grace in this, when it is as spiritual as has been shown to you in
the explication of this point. If a man is distempered in his
body, and has many obstructions, has an ill stomach, and his
spleen and liver obstructed, and yet for all this his brain is not
disordered, it is an argument of a great strength of brain; though
many evil fumes may arise from his corrupt stomach, yet still his
brain is not disordered but he continues in the free exercise of
his reason and understanding. Every one may understand that this
man has a very strong brain, when such things do not upset him. If
other people who have a weak brain do not digest but one meal's
meat, the fumes that arise from their stomach disorder their brain
and make them unfit for everything, whereas these have strong
heads, and strong brains, and though their stomachs are ill and
they cannot digest meat, yet they still have the free use of their
brain: this, I say, argues strength. So it is in a man's spirit:
you find many who have weak spirits, and if they have any ill
fumes, if accidents befall them, you will soon find them out of
temper; but there are other men, who though things fume up, still
keep in a steady way, and have the use of reason and of their
graces, and possess their souls in patience.

I remember it is reported of the
eagle that it is not like other fowls: when other fowls are hungry
they make a noise; but the eagle is never heard to make noise
though it lacks food. Now it is from the magnitude of its spirit
that it will not make such complaints as other fowls do when they
lack food, because it is above hunger, and above thirst. Similarly
it is an argument of a gracious magnitude of spirit, that
whatsoever befalls it, yet it is not always whining and
complaining as others do, but it goes on in its way and course,
and blesses God, and keeps in a constant tenor whatever befalls
it. Such things as cause others to be dejected and fretted and
vexed, and take away all the comfort of their lives make no
alteration at all in the spirits of these men and women. This, I
say, is a sign of a great deal of strength of grace.

3. It is also an argument of a great
deal of beauty of grace. There is a saying of Seneca, a heathen,
'When you go out into groves and woods, and see the tallness of
the trees and their shadows, it strikes a kind of awful fear of a
deity in you, and when you see the vast rivers and fountains and
deep waters, that strikes a kind of fear of a God in you, but', he
said, 'do you see a man who is quiet in tempests, and who lives
happily in the midst of adversities, why do not you worship that
man?' He thinks him a man worthy of such honor who will be quiet
and live a happy life, though in the midst of adversities. The
glory of God appears here more than in any of his works. There is
no work which God has made-the sun, moon, stars and all the
world-in which so much of the glory of God appears as in a man who
lives quietly in the midst of adversity. That was what convinced
the king: when he saw that the three children could walk in the
midst of the fiery furnace and not be touched, the king was
mightily convinced by this, that surely their God was the great
God indeed, and that they were highly beloved of their God who
could walk in the midst of the furnace and not be touched, whereas
the others who came only to the mouth of the furnace were
devoured. So when a Christian can walk in the midst of fiery
trials, without his garments being singed, and has comfort and joy
in the midst of everything (when like Paul in the stocks he can
sing, which wrought upon the jailor) it will convince men, when
they see the power of grace in the midst of afflictions. When they
can behave themselves in a gracious and holy manner in such
afflictions as would make others roar: Oh, this is the glory of a
Christian.

It is what is said to be the glory
of Christ, (for it is thought by interpreters to be meant of
Christ) in

Micah 5:5: 'And this man shall be
the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he
shall tread in our palaces.' This man shall be the peace when the
Assyrian shall come into our land-for one to be in peace when
there are no enemies is no great thing, but the text says, when
the Assyrian shall come into our land, then this man shall be the
peace. That is, when all shall be in a hubbub and uproar, yet then
this man shall be peace. That is the trial of grace, when you find
Jesus Christ to be peace in your hearts when the Assyrian shall
come into the land. You may think you find peace in Christ when
you have no outward troubles, but is Christ your peace when the
Assyrian comes into the land, when the enemy comes? Suppose you
should hear the enemy come marching to the city and they had taken
the works, and were plundering, what would be your peace? Jesus
Christ would be peace to the soul when the enemy comes into the
city, and into your houses. If any of you have been where the
enemy has come, what has been the peace of your souls? What is
said of Christ may be applied to this grace of contentment: when
the Assyrian, the plunderers, the enemies, when any affliction,
trouble, distress befalls such a heart, then this grace of
contentment bring peace to the soul; it brings peace to the soul
at the time when the Assyrian comes into the land. The grace of
contentment is an excellent grace: there is much beauty, much
strength in it, there is a great deal of worth in this grace, and
therefore be in love with it.

3. BY CONTENTMENT THE SOUL IS FITTED
TO RECEIVE MERCY, AND TO DO SERVICE.

I will put these two together:
contentment makes the soul fit to receive mercy, and to do
service. No man or woman in the world is as fit to receive the
grace of God, and to do the work of God, as those who have
contented spirits.

Those who are contented are fitted
to receive mercy from the Lord. If you want a vessel to take in
any liquor, you must hold it still for if the vessel stirs and
shakes up and down, you cannot pour in anything, but you will say,
'Hold still', that you may pour it in and not lose any. So if we
would be vessels to receive God's mercy, and would have the Lord
pour his mercy into us, we must have quiet, still hearts. We must
not have hearts hurrying up and down in trouble, discontent and
vexing, but still and quiet hearts, if we receive mercy from the
Lord. If a child throws and kicks up and down for a thing, you do
not give it him when he cries so, but first you will have the
child quiet. Even though, perhaps, you intend him to have what he
cries for, you will not give it him till he is quiet, and comes,
and stands still before you, and is contented without it, and then
you will give it him. And truly so does the Lord deal with us, for
our dealings with him are just as your froward children's are with
you. As soon as you want a thing from God, if you cannot have it
you are disquieted at once and all in an uproar, as it were, in
your spirits. God intends mercy to you, but he says, 'You shall
not have it yet, I will see you quiet first, and then in the
quietness of your hearts come to me, and see what I will do with
you.' I appeal to you who are in any way acquainted with the ways
of God, have you not found this to be the way of God towards you/
When you were troubled for want, perhaps, of some spiritual
comfort and your hearts were vexed at it, you got nothing from God
all that while; but if you have got your heart into a quiet frame,
and can say, 'Well, it is right that the Lord should do with his
poor creatures what he will, I am under his feet, and am resolved
to do what I can to honor him, and whatever he does with me, I
will seek him as long as I live, I will be content with what God
gives, and whether he gives or not I will be content.' 'Are you in
this frame?' says God, 'now you shall have comfort, now I will
give you the mercy.' A prisoner must not think he will get rid of
his chains by pulling and tearing; he may gall his flesh and rend
it to the very bone, but certainly he will not be unfettered
sooner. If he wants his fetters taken off he must quietly give up
himself to some man to take them off. If a beggar knocks once or
twice at the door and you do not come, and thereupon he is vexed
and troubled and thinks it much that you let him stand a little
while without anything, you think that this beggar is not fit to
receive an alms. But if you hear two or three beggars at your
door, and out of your window you hear them say, 'Let us be content
to stay, perhaps they are busy, it is right that we should stay,
it is well if we get anything in the end, we deserve nothing at
all, and therefore we may well wait a while', you would then
quickly send them an alms. So God deals with the heart: when it is
in a disquiet mood then God does not give; but when the heart lies
down quietly under God's hand, then is it in a fit frame to
receive mercy. 'Your strength shall be to sit still,' says God,
'you shall not be delivered from Babylon but by your sitting
still.' 4. AS CONTENTMENT MAKES FIT TO RECEIVE MERCY, SO FIT TO DO
SERVICE.

O the quiet fruits of righteousness,
the peaceable fruits of righteousness! They indeed prosper and
multiply most when they come to be peaceable fruits of
righteousness. As the philosophers say of everything that moves,
nothing moves but upon something that is immovable. A thing which
moves upon the earth, could not move if the earth were not
still.

Objection. The ships move upon the
sea, and that is not still.

Answer. But the seas move upon that
which is still and immovable.

Nothing moves but it has something
immovable that upholds it. The wheels in a coach move up and down,
but the axle-tree does not move up and down; so it is with the
heart of a man. As they say of the Heaven that it moves up and
down upon a pole that is immovable, so it is in the heart of a
man: if he will move to do service to God, he must have a steady
heart within him. That must help him to move in the service of
God, for those who have unsteady, disturbed spirits which have no
steadfastness at all in them are not fit to do service for God,
but such as have steadfastness in their spirits are men and women
fit to do any service. That is the reason why, when the Lord has
any great work for one of his servants to do, usually he first
quiets their spirits, he brings their spirits into a quiet, sweet
frame, to be contented with anything, and then he sets them about
employment.

5. CONTENTMENT DELIVERS US FROM AN
ABUNDANCE OF TEMPTATIONS.

Oh, the temptations that men of
discontented spirits are subject to! The Devil loves to fish in
troubled waters. That is our proverb about men and women, their
disposition is to fish in troubled waters, they say it is good
fishing in troubled waters. This is the maxim of the Devil, he
loves to fish in troubled waters; where he sees the spirits of men
and women troubled and vexed, there the Devil comes. He says,
'There is good fishing for me', when he sees men and women go up
and down discontented, and he can get them alone, then he comes
with his temptations: 'Will you suffer such a thing?' he says,
'take this shift, this indirect way, do you not see how poor you
are, others are well off, you do not know what to do for the
winter, to provide fuel and get bread for you and your children',
and so he tempts them to unlawful courses. This is the special
disorder that the Devil fastens upon, when he gets men and women
to give their souls to him: it is from discontent, that is the
ground of all who have been witches, and so have given up
themselves to the Devil: the rise of it has been their
discontent.

Therefore it is noticeable that
those upon whom the Devil works, to make them witches, are usually
old and melancholy people, and women especially, and those of the
poorer sort who are discontented at home. Their neighbors trouble
them and vex them, and their spirits are weak and they cannot bear
it, so upon that the Devil fastens his temptations and draws them
to anything. If they are poor, then he promises them money; if
they have revengeful spirits, then he tells them that he will
revenge them upon such and such persons: now this quiets and
contents them. Oh! there is occasion of temptation for the Devil
when he meets with a discontented spirit! Luther said of God, 'God
does not dwell in Babylon, but in Salem.' Babylon signifies
confusion, and Salem signifies peace; now God does not dwell in
spirits that are in a confusion, but he dwells in peaceable and
quiet spirits. Oh, if you would free yourselves from temptations,
labor for contentment. It is the peace of God that guards the
heart from temptation. I remember reading of one Marius Curio who
had bribes sent to him, to tempt him to be unfaithful to his
country. When he was sitting at home at dinner with a dish of
turnips, and they came and promised him rewards: said he, 'That
man who can be contented with this fare that I have will not be
tempted with your rewards. I thank God I am content with this far,
and as for rewards let them be offered to those that cannot be
content to dine with a dish of turnips.' So the truth is, as we
see clearly, that the reason why many betray their trust, as in
the service of Parliament and the Kingdom, is because they cannot
be contented to be in a low condition. If a man is contented to be
in a low condition, and to go meanly clothed if God sees fit, such
a one is shot-free, you mighty say, from thousands of temptations
of the Devil, that prevail against others to the damning of their
souls.

Oh, in such times as these, when men
are in danger of the loss of their wealth, I say men who have not
got this grace are in a most lamentable condition, they are in
more danger for their souls than they are for their outward
possessions. You think it is a sad thing to be in danger of your
outward possessions that you may lose everything in a night; but
if you have not this contented spirit within you, you are in more
danger of the temptations of the Devil, to be plundered in that
way of any good, and to be led into sin. Oh, when men think thus,
that they must live as finely as they were wont to do, they make
themselves a prey to the Devil, but for such as can say, 'let God
do with me what he pleases, I am content to submit to his hand in
it', the Devil will scarcely meddle with such men. There was a
notable saying of a philosopher who lived on mean fare: as he was
eating herbs and roots, someone said to him, 'If you would but
please Dionysius, you need not eat herbs and roots'; but he
answered him thus, 'If you would but be content with such mean
fare, you need not flatter Dionysius.' Temptations will no more
prevail over a contented man, than a dart that is thrown against a
brazen wall.

6. THE SIXTH EXCELLENCE IS THE
ABUNDANT COMFORTS IN A MAN'S LIFE THAT CONTENTMENT WILL
BRING.

Contentment will make a man's life
exceedingly sweet and comfortable, nothing more so than the grace
of contentment. I will show how it brings comfort in many
ways.

1. What a man has he has in a kind
of independent way, not depending upon any creature for his
comfort.

2. If God raises the position of a
contented man who is low, he has the love of God in it. It is
abundantly more sweet then than if he had it and his heart was not
contented; for God may grant a discontented man his desire, but he
cannot say that it is from love. If a man has quieted his spirit
first, and then God grants him his desire, he may have more
comfort in it, and more assurance that he has the love of God in
it.

3. This contentment is a comfort to
a man's spirit in this, that it keeps in his comforts, and keeps
out whatever may damp his comforts, or put out the light of them.
I may compare this grace of contentment to a sailor's lantern:
when a sailor is at sea, no matter how much provision he has in
his ship, yet if he is thousands of leagues from land, or in a
route where he will not meet with a ship for three or four months,
he will be in a sad state if he has no lantern on his ship, nor
anything by which to keep a candle alight in a storm. He would
give a great deal to have a lantern, or something that might serve
instead of one. When a storm comes in the night, and he can have
no light above board, but it is puffed out at once, his state is
very sad. So, many men have the light of comfort when there is no
storm, but let any affliction come, any storm upon them, and their
light is puffed out at once, and what can they do now? When the
heart is furnished with this grace of contentment, this grace is,
as it were, the lantern, and it keeps comfort in the spirit of a
man, light in the midst of a storm and tempest. When you have a
lantern in the midst of a storm you can carry light everywhere up
and down the ship, to the top of the mast if you wish, and yet
keep it alight; so when the comfort of a Christian is enlivened
with the grace of contentment, it may be kept alight whatever
storms or tempests come, still he can keep light in his soul. Oh
this helps your comforts very much.

7. CONTENTMENT DRAWS COMFORT FROM
THOSE THINGS WE DO NOT REALLY POSSESS.

Perhaps many who have not got
outward things have more comfort than those who do possess them. A
man who distils herbs, though he has not got the herbs themselves,
yet having the water that is distilled out of them, he may enjoy
the benefit of the herbs. So though a man has not got real
possession of such outward wealth, such an outward comfort, yet,
by the grace of contentment he may get it to himself. By the art
of navigation we can bring in the riches of the East and West
Indies to ourselves; so by the art of contentment we may bring in
the comfort of any condition to ourselves, that is, we may have
that comfort by contentment, that we should have if we had the
thing itself.

You will find a noteworthy story in
Plutarch to illustrate this: In the life of Pyrrhus, one Sineus
came to him, and would fain have had him desist from the wars, and
not war with the Romans. He said to him, 'May it please your
Majesty, it is reported that the Romans are very good men of war,
and if it please the gods that we overcome them, what benefit
shall we have of that victory?' Pyrrhus answered him, 'We shall
then straightway conquer all the rest of Italy with ease.' 'Indeed
that is likely which your Grace speaks,' said Sineus, 'but when we
have won Italy, will our wars end then?' 'If the gods were
pleased', said Pyrrhus, 'that the victory were achieved, the way
would then be made open for us to attain great conquests, for who
would not afterwards go into Africa, and so to Carthage?' 'But',
said Sineus, 'when we have everything in our hands what shall we
do in the end?' Then Pyrrhus laughing, told him again, 'We will
then be quiet, and take our ease, and have feasts every day, and
be as merry with one another as we possibly can.' Said Sineus,
'What prevents us now from being as quiet, and merry together,
since we enjoy that immediately without further travel and trouble
which we would seek for abroad, with such shedding of blood, and
manifest danger? can you not sit down and be merry now?' So a man
may think, if I had such a thing, then I would have another, and
if I had that, then I should have more; and what if you had got
all you desire? Then you would be content-why? You may be content
now without them.

Certainly our contentment does not
consist in getting the thing we desire, but in God's fashioning
our spirits to our conditions. Some men have not got a foot of
ground of their own, yet they live better than other men who are
heirs to a great deal of land. I have known it in the country
sometimes, that a man lives upon his own land, and yet lives very
poorly; but you find another man who rents his land, and yet by
his good husbandry, and by his care, lives better than he who has
his own land. So a many by this art of contentment may live better
without an estate than another man can live off an estate. Oh, it
adds exceedingly to the comfort of a Christian.

That I may show it further I would
add, there is more comfort even in the grace of contentment than
there is in any possessions whatsoever; a man has more comfort in
being content without a thing, than he can have in the thing that
he in a discontented way desires. You think, if I had such a
thing, then I should be content. I say, there is more good in
contentment, than there is in the thing that you would fain have
to cure your discontent, and that I shall show in several
particulars: 1. I would fain have such a thing, and then I could
be content; but if I had it, then it would be but the creature
that helped my contentment, whereas now it is the grace of God in
my soul that makes me content, and surely it is better to be
content with the grace of God in my soul, than with enjoying an
outward comfort? 2. If I had such a thing, granted my position
might be better, but my soul would not be better; but by
contentment my soul is better. That would not be bettered by
wealth, or lands, or friends; but contentment makes myself better,
and therefore contentment is a better portion than the thing that
I would fain have as my portion.

3. If I become content by having my
desire satisfied, that is only self-love, but when I am contented
with the hand of God, and am willing to be at his disposal, that
comes form my love to God. In having my desire satisfied, I am
contented through self-love, but through the grace of contentment
I come to be contented out of love to God, and is it not better to
be contented out of love to God, tan from a principle of
self-love? 4. If I am contented because I have what I desire,
perhaps I am contented in that one thing, but that one thing does
not furnish me with contentment in another thing; perhaps I may
grow more dainty and nice and froward in other things. If you give
children what they want in some things, they grow so much the more
coy and dainty and discontented if they cannot have other things
that they want. But if I have once overcome my heart, and am
contented through the grace of God in my heart, then this makes me
content not only in one particular but in general, whatever
befalls me. I am discontented, and would fain have a certain
thing, and afterwards I have it: now does this prepare me to be
contented in other things? No, but when I have got this grace of
contentment, I am prepared to be contented in all conditions. Thus
you see that contentment brings comfort to a man's life, fills it
full of comfort in this world; the truth is, it is even a Heaven
on earth.

What is Heaven, but the rest and
quiet of a man's spirit; that is the special thing that makes the
life of Heaven, there is rest and joy, and satisfaction in God. So
it is in a contented spirit: there is rest and joy and
satisfaction in God. In Heaven there is singing praises to God; a
contented heart is always praising and blessing God. You have
Heaven while you are on earth when you have a contented spirit;
yea, in some regards it is better than Heaven.

How is that, you will say? There is
a kind of honor that God has in it, and an excellence that he does
not have in Heaven, and it is this: In Heaven there is no
overcoming of temptations. They are not put to any trials by
afflictions. In Heaven they have exercise of grace, but they have
nothing but encouragement to it, and indeed the grace of those who
are there is perfect, and in that they excel us. But there is
nothing to cross their grace, they have no trials at all to tempt
them to do contrary; whereas for a man or woman to be in the midst
of afflictions, temptations and troubles, and yet to have grace
exercised, and to be satisfied in God and Christ and in the Word
and promises in the midst of all they suffer: this may seem to be
an honor that God receives from us, that he does not have from the
angels and saints in Heaven. Is it so much for one who is in
Heaven, who has nothing but good from God, has nothing to try him,
no temptations; is it so much for such a one to be praising and
blessing God, as for the poor soul who is in the midst of trials
and temptations and afflictions and troubles? For this soul to go
on praying, and blessing, and serving God, I say, is an excellence
that you do not find in Heaven, and God will not have this kind of
glory from you in Heaven. Therefore be contented, and prize this
contentment, and be willing to live in this world as long as God
shall please. Do not think, Oh, that I were delivered from all
these afflictions and troubles here in this world! If you were,
then you would have more ease yourself, but this is a way of
honoring God, and manifesting the excellence of grace here, when
you are in this conflict of temptation, which God shall not have
from you in Heaven.

So be satisfied and quiet, be
contented with your contentment. I lack certain things that others
have, but blessed be God, I have a contented heart which others
have not. Then, I say, be content with your contentment, for it is
a rich portion that the Lord has granted you. If the Lord should
give you thousands in this world, it would not be such a rich
portion as this, that he has given you a contented spirit. Oh, go
away and praise the name of God, and say, 'Why, Lord, it is true
that I would be glad if I had these and these comforts which
others have, but you have cut me short. Though I lack these, yet
you have given me what is as good and better, you have given me a
quiet, contented heart, to be willing to be at your disposal.' 8.
CONTENTMENT IS A GREAT BLESSING OF GOD UPON THE SOUL.

There is God's blessing upon those
who are content, upon them, and their possessions, and upon all
that they have. We read in Deuteronomy of the blessing of Judah,
the principal tribe: 'And he said, hear, Lord, the voice of Judah,
and bring him unto his people, let his hands be sufficient for
him, and be thou an help to him from his enemies.' Let his hands
be sufficient for him, that is, bring a sufficiency of all good to
him that he may have of his own: that is the blessing of Judah. So
when God gives you a sufficiency of your own, as every contented
man has, that is the blessing of God upon you, the blessing of the
principal tribe, of Judah, is upon you. It is the Lord who gives
us all things to enjoy; we may have the thing and yet not enjoy it
unless God comes in with his blessing. Now whatever you have, you
enjoy it; many men have possessions and do not enjoy them. It is
the blessing of God which gives us all things to enjoy, and it is
God who through his blessing has fashioned your heart and made it
suitable to your circumstances.

9. THOSE WHO ARE CONTENT MAY EXPECT
REWARD FROM GOD That God will give them the good of all the things
which they are contented to be without. This brings an abundance
of good to a contented spirit. There is such and such a mercy
which you think would be very pleasant to you if you had it; but
can you bring your heart to submit to God in it? Then you shall
have the blessing of the mercy one way or another; if you do not
have the thing itself, you shall have it made up one way or
another; you will have a bill of exchange to receive something in
lieu of it. There is no comfort that any soul is content to be
without, but the Lord will give either the comfort or something
instead of it. You shall have a reward to your soul for whatever
good thing you are content to be without. You know what the
Scripture says of active obedience: the Lord accepts of his
servants their will for the deed. Though we do not do a good
thing, yet if our hearts are upright, to will to do it, we shall
have the blessing, though we do not do the thing. You who complain
of weakness, you cannot do as others do, you cannot do as much
service as others do-if your hearts are upright with God, and
would fain do the same service that you see others do, and would
account it a great blessing of God, the greatest blessing in the
world if you were able to do as others do-now you may comfort
yourselves with this, that dealing with God in the Covenant of
grace, you shall have from God the reward of all you would do. As
a wicked man shall have the punishment for all the sin he would
commit, so you shall have the reward for all the good you would
do. Now may not we draw an argument from active obedience to
passive: there is as good reason why you should expect that God
will reward you for all that you are willing to suffer, as well as
for all that you are willing to do. If you are willing to be
without such a comfort and mercy when God sees fit, you shall be
no loser; certainly God will reward you either with the comfort or
with what shall be as good to you as the comfort. Therefore
consider, How many things have I that others lack? and can I bring
my heart into a quiet, contented frame to lack what others have? I
have the blessing of all that they have, and I shall either
possess such things as others have, or else God will make it up
one way or another, either here or hereafter in eternity to me. Oh
what riches are here! With contentment you have all kinds of
riches.

10. LASTLY, BY CONTENTMENT THE SOUL
COMES TO AN EXCELLENCE NEAR TO GOD HIMSELF, YEA, THE NEAREST
POSSIBLE.

For this word, this is translated
'content', signifies a self-sufficiency, as I told you in opening
the words. A contented man is a self-sufficient man, and what is
the great glory of God, but to be happy and self-sufficient in
himself? Indeed, he is said to be all-sufficient, but that is only
a further addition of the word 'all', rather than of any matter,
for to be sufficient is all-sufficient. Now this is the glory of
God, to be sufficient, to have sufficiency in himself. El-shaddai
means to be God having sufficiency in himself. And you come near
to this. As you partake of the Divine nature by grace in general,
so you do it in a more peculiar manner by this grace of Christian
contentment, for what is the excellence and glory of God but this?
Suppose there were no creatures in the world, and that all the
creatures in the world were annihilated: God would remain the same
blessed God that he is now, he would not be in a worse condition
if all creatures were gone; neither would a contented heart, if
God should take away all creatures from him. A contented heart has
enough in the lack of all creatures, and would not be more
miserable than he is now. Suppose that God should keep you here,
and all the creatures that are in the world were taken away, yet
you still, having God to be your portion, would be as happy as you
are now.

Therefore contentment has a great
deal of excellence in it.

5. THE EVILS OF A MURMURING SPIRIT
Thus we have showed in many respects the excellence of this grace
of contentment, laboring to present the beauty of it before your
souls, that you may be in love with it. Now, my brethren, what
remains but the practice of this? For this art of contentment is
not a speculative thing, only for contemplation, but it is an art
of divinity, and therefore practical. You are now to labor to work
upon your hearts, that this grace may be in you, that you may
honor God and honor your profession with this grace of
contentment, for there are none who more honor God, and honor
their profession than those who have this grace of
contentment.

Now that we may come to grips with
the practice, it is necessary that we should be humbled in our
hearts because of our lack of contentment in the past. For there
is no way to set about any duty that you should perform, you might
labor to perform it, but first you must be humbled for the lack of
it. Therefore I shall endeavor to get your hearts to be humbled
for lack of this grace. 'Oh, had I had this grace of contentment,
what a happy life I might have lived! What abundance of honor I
might have brought to the name of God! How might I have honored my
profession! What a great deal of comfort I might have enjoyed! But
the Lord knows it has been far otherwise. Oh, how far I have been
from this grace of contentment which has been expounded to me! I
have had a murmuring, a vexing, and a fretting heart within me.
Every little cross has put me out of temper and out of frame. Oh,
the boisterousness of my spirit! What evil God sees in the vexing
and fretting of my heart, and murmuring and repining of my
spirit!' Oh that God would make you see it! Now to the end that
you might be humbled for lack of it, I shall endeavor in these
headlings to speak of it: First I shall set before you The evil of
a murmuring spirit. There is more evil in it than you are aware
of.

In the second place, I will show you
some aggravations of this evil. It is altogether evil, but more so
in some cases than others.

Thirdly, I shall labor to take away
the excuses that any murmuring, discontented heart has for his
disorder.

There are these three things in this
use of humbling of the soul for the want of this grace of
contentment.

For the present, the first: The
great evil that is in a murmuring, discontented heart.

1. THIS MURMURING AND
DISCONTENTEDNESS OF YOURS REVEALS MUCH CORRUPTION IN THE
SOUL.

As contentment argues much grace,
and strong grace, and beautiful grace, so murmuring argues much
corruption, and strong corruption, and very vile corruptions in
your heart. If a man's body is of such a temper that every scratch
of a pin makes his flesh to rankle and be a sore, you will surely
say, this man's body is very corrupt, his blood and his flesh is
corrupt, that every scratch of a pin shall make it rankle. So it
is in your spirit, if every little trouble and affliction makes
you discontented, and makes you murmur, and even causes your
spirit within you to rankle. Or like a wound in a man's body, the
evil of the wound is not so much in the largeness of it, and the
abundance of blood that comes out of it, but in the inflammation
that there is in it, or in a fretting and corrupting humor that is
in the wound.

When an unskilled man comes and sees
a large wound in the flesh, he looks upon it as a dangerous wound,
and when he sees a great deal of blood gush out, he thinks, these
are the evils of it; but when a surgeon comes and sees a great
gash, he says: 'This will be healed within a few days, but there
is a smaller wound and an inflammation or a septic sore in it, and
this will cost time', he says, 'to cure.' So he does not lay
balsam and healing salves upon it, but his great is to get out the
septic inflammation, and the thing that must heal this wound is
some potion to purge. But the patient says, 'What good will this
do to my wound? You give me something to drink, and my wound is in
my arm, or in my leg. What good will this do that I am putting in
my stomach?' Yes, it purges out the infection, and takes away the
inflammation, and till that is taken away the salves can do no
good.

So it is, just for all the world, in
the souls of men: it may be that there is some affliction upon
them, which I compare to the wound; now they think that the
greatness of the affliction is what makes their condition most
miserable. Oh now, there is a fretting humor, an inflammation in
the heart, a murmuring spirit that is within you, and that is the
misery of your condition, and it must be purged out of you before
you can be healed. Let God do with you what he will, till he
purges out that fretting humor your wound will not be healed. A
murmuring heart is a very sinful heart; so when you are troubled
for this affliction you had need to turn your thoughts rather to
be troubled for the murmuring of your heart, for that is the
greatest trouble. There is an affliction upon you and that is
grievous, but there is a murmuring heart within and that is more
grievous. Oh, that we could but convince men and women that
murmuring spirit is a greater evil than any affliction, whatever
the affliction! We shall show more fully afterward that a
murmuring spirit is the evil of the evil, and the misery of the
misery.

2. THE EVIL OF MURMURING IS SUCH
THAT WHEN GOD WOULD SPEAK OF WICKED MEN AND DESCRIBE THEM, and
show the brand of a wicked and ungodly man or woman, he instances
this sin in a more special manner. I might name many Scriptures,
but that Scripture in Jude is a most remarkable one. In the 14th
verse onwards, it is said, 'That the Lord comes with ten thousands
of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all
that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, which
they have ungodly committed, and all of their hard speeches, which
ungodly sinners have spoken against him.' Mark here in this 15th
verse mention is made four times of ungodly ones: all that are
ungodly among them, all their ungodly deeds which they have
ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly
sinners have spoken against him. This is in general, but now he
comes in particular to show who these are: 'These are', he says,
'murmurers',-that is the very first. Would you know who are
ungodly men, whom God when he comes with ten thousands of angels
shall come to punish for all their ungodly deeds that they do, and
those that speak ungodly things against him? These ungodly ones
are murmurers; murmurers in Scripture are put in the forefront of
all. You had need to look to your spirits; you may see that this
murmuring, which is the vice contrary to this contentment, is not
as small a matter as you think. You think you are not as ungodly
as others, because you do not swear and drink as others do, but
you may be ungodly in murmuring. It is true there is no sin but
some seeds and remainders of it are in those who are godly; but
when men are under the power of this sin of murmuring, it convicts
them as ungodly, as well as if they were under the power of
drunkenness, or whoredom, or any other sin. God will look upon you
as ungodly for this sin as well as for any sin whatever. This one
Scripture should make the heart shake at the thought of the sin of
murmuring.

3. AS WELL AS BEING MADE A BRAND OF
UNGODLY MEN, YOU WILL FIND IN SCRIPTURE THAT GOD ACCOUNTS IT
REBELLION.

It is contrary to the worship that
is in contentedness. That is worshipping God, crouching to God and
falling down before him, even as a dog would crouch when you hold
a stick over him; but a murmuring heart is a rebellious heart, as
you will find, if you compare two Scripture together: they are
both in the book of Numbers. 'But on the morrow', says

Numbers 16:41, 'all the congregation
of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against
Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord.' They all
murmured; now compare this with chapter 17 and

verse 10: 'And the Lord said unto
Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony, to be kept
for a token against the rebels.' In the 16th chapter they murmured
against Moses and Aaron, and in the 17th chapter we read, Bring
the rod of Aaron again, before the testimony, for a token against
the rebels. So you see that to be a murmurer, and to be a rebel,
in Scripture phrase is all one; it is rebellion against God. Just
as it is the beginning of rebellion and sedition in a kingdom,
when the people are discontented. When discontent comes, it grows
to murmuring, and you can go into no house almost, but there is
murmuring when men are discontented, so that within a little while
it breaks forth into sedition or rebellion. Murmuring is but as
the smoke of the fire: there is first a smoke and smouldering
before the flame breaks forth; and so before open rebellion in a
kingdom there is first a smoke of murmuring, and then it breaks
forth into open rebellion. But because it has the seeds of
rebellion, it is accounted before the Lord to be rebellion. Will
you be a rebel against God? When you feel your heart discontented
and murmuring against the dispensation of God towards you, you
should check it thus: Oh, you wretched heart! What, will you be a
rebel against God? Will you rise in rebellion against the infinite
God? Yet you have done so. Charge your heart with this sin of
rebellion.

You who are guilty of this sin of
murmuring, you are this day charged by the Lord, as being guilty
of rebellion against him, and God expects that when you go home,
you should humble your souls before him for this sin, that you
should charge your souls for being guilty of rebellion against
God.

Many of you may say, I never thought
that I was a rebel against God before, I thought that I had many
infirmities, but now I see the Scripture speaks of sin in a
different way than men do, the Scripture makes men, though only
murmurers, to be rebels against God. Oh, this rebellious heart
that I have against the Lord, which has manifested itself in this
way of murmuring against the Lord! That is a third point in the
evil of discontent.

4. IT IS A WICKEDNESS WHICH IS
GREATLY CONTRARY TO GRACE, AND ESPECIALLY CONTRARY TO THE WORK OF
GOD, IN BRINGING THE SOUL HOME TO HIMSELF.

I know no disorder more opposite and
contrary to the work of God in the conversion of a sinner, than
this is.

Question. What is the work of God
when he brings a sinner home to himself? Answer. 1. The usual way
is for God to make the soul to see, and be sensible of the
dreadful evil that is in sin, and the great breach that sin has
made between God and it, for, certainly, Jesus Christ can never be
known in his beauty and excellence till the soul knows that. I do
not say what secret work of the Holy Ghost there may be in the
soul, but before the soul can actually apply Jesus Christ to
itself, it is impossible but that it must come to know the evil of
sin, and the excellence of Jesus Christ. A seed of faith may be
put into the soul, but the soul must first know Christ, and know
sin, and be made sensible of it. Now how contrary is this sin of
murmuring to any such work of God! Has God made me see the
dreadful evil of sin, and made my soul sensible of the evil of sin
as the greatest burden? How can I be then so much troubled for
every little affliction? Certainly, if I saw what the evil of sin
was, that sight would swallow up all other evils, and if I were
burdened with the evil of sin, it would swallow up all other
burdens. What! am I now murmuring against God's hand? says such a
soul, whereas a while ago the Lord made me see myself to be a
damned wretch, and apprehend it as a wonder that I was not in
Hell?

2. Yea, it is strongly contrary to
the sight of the infinite excellence and glory of Jesus Christ,
and of the things of the Gospel. What! am I the soul to whom the
Lord has revealed the infinite excellence of Jesus Christ, and yet
shall I think such a little affliction to be so grievous to me,
when I have had the sight of such glory in Christ as is worth more
than ten thousand worlds? A true convert will say: 'Oh, the Lord
at such a time gave me a sight of Christ that I would not be
without for ten thousand, thousand worlds.' But has God given you
that, and will you be discontented for a trifle in comparison to
that?

3. A third work when God brings the
soul home to himself is by taking the heart off from the creature,
disengaging the heart from all creature-comforts: that is the
third work ordinarily that the soul may perceive of itself. It is
true, God's work may be altogether in the seeds in him, but in the
various actings of the soul, in turning to God, it may perceive
these things in it. The disengagement of the heart from the
creature is the calling of the soul from the world-'whom the Lord
hath called he hath justified'-what is the calling of the soul but
this? The soul which before was seeking for contentment in the
world, and cleaving to the creature, is now called out in the
world by the Lord, who says: 'Oh Soul, your happiness is not here,
your rest is not here, your happiness is elsewhere, and your heart
must be loosened from all the things that are here below in the
world.' This is the work of God in the soul, to disengage the
heart from the creature, and how contrary is a murmuring heart to
such a thing! Something which is glued to another cannot be taken
off, but you must tear it; so it is a sign your heart is glued to
the world, that when God would take you off, your heart tears. If
God, by an affliction, should come to take anything in the world
from you, and you can part from it with ease, without tearing, it
is a sign then that your heart is not glued to the
world.

4. A fourth work of God in
converting a sinner is this, the casting of the soul upon Jesus
Christ for all its good. I see Jesus Christian the Gospel as the
Fountain of all good, and God out of free grace tendering him to
me for life and for salvation, and now my souls casts itself,
rolls itself upon the infinite grace of God in Christ for all
good. now have you done so? Has God converted you, and drawn you
to his Son to cast your soul upon him for all your good, and yet
you are discontented for the want of some little matter in a
creature comfort? Are you he who has cast your soul upon Jesus
Christ for all good? As he says in another case, 'Is this thy
faith?' 5. The soul is subdued to God. And then it comes to
receive Jesus Christ as a King, to rule, to order, and dispose of
him how he pleases, and so the heart is subdued unto God. Now how
opposite is a murmuring, discontented heart to a heart subdued to
Jesus Christ as King, and receiving him as a Lord to rule and
dispose of him as he pleases! 6. There is in the work of your
turning to God the giving up of yourself to God in an everlasting
covenant. As you take Christ, the head of the Covenant, to be
yours, so you give up yourself to Christ. In the work of
conversion there is the resignation of the soul wholly to God in
an everlasting covenant to be his. Have you ever surrendered up
yourself to God in an everlasting covenant? Then, certainly, this
fretting, murmuring heart of ours is strongly opposite to it,
certainly you forget this covenant of yours, and the resignation
of yourself up to God. It would be of marvellous help to you to
humble your souls when you are in a murmuring
condition.

If you could but obtain so much
liberty of your own spirits as to look back to see what the work
of God was in converting you, there is nothing would prevail more
than to think of that. I am now in a murmuring, discontented way,
but how did I feel my soul working when God turned my soul to
himself! Oh, how opposite is this to that work, and how
unbecoming! Oh, what shame and confusion would come upon the
spirits of men and women, if they could but compare the work of
corruption in their murmuring and discontent with the work of God
that was upon their souls in conversion! Now we should labor to
keep the work of God upon our souls which was present at our
conversion; for conversion must not be only at one instant at
first. Men are deceived in this, if they think their conversion is
finished merely at first; you must be in a way of conversion to
God all the days of your life, and therefore Christ said to his
disciples, 'Except ye be converted and become as little children?'
Ye be converted. Why? Were they not converted before? Yes, they
were converted, but they were still to continue the work of
conversion all the days of their lives. What work of God there is
at the first conversion is to abide afterwards. There must always
abide some sight and sense of sin; it may be not in the way which
you had, which was rather a preparation than anything else, but
the sight and sense of sin is to continue still, that is, you are
still to be sensible of the burden of sin as it is against the
holiness, and goodness, and mercy of God to you. And the sight of
the excellence of Jesus Christ is to continue, and your calling
away from the creature, and your casting of your soul upon Christ,
and your receiving Christ as King-still receive him day by day-and
the subduing of your heart, and the surrendering of yourself up to
God in a way of covenant. Now if this were but daily continued,
there would be no space nor time for murmuring to work upon your
heart: that is the fourth point.

5. MURMURING AND DISCONTENT IS
EXCEEDINGLY BELOW A CHRISTIAN.

Oh, it is too mean and base a
disorder for a Christian to give place to it.

Now it is below a Christian in many
respects.

1. Below the relation of a
Christian. How below the relation of a Christian? The relation in
which you stand. Below what relation? you will say.

i . The relation in which you stand
to God. Do you not call God your father? and do you not stand in
relation to him as a child? What! do you murmur? In

2 Samuel 13:4 there is a speech of
Jonadab to Amnon: 'Why art thou, being the king's son, lean from
day to day? wilt thou not tell me?'; and so he told him, but that
was for a wicked cause. He perceived that his spirit was troubled,
for otherwise he was of a fat and plump temper of body, but
because of trouble of spirit he even pined away. Why? What is the
matter? You stand in this relation to the King and yet let
anything trouble your heart-that is his meaning; is there anything
that should disquiet your heart when you stand in such a relation
to the King, as the King's son? So I may say to a Christian: Are
you the King's son, the son, the daughter, of the King of Heaven,
and yet so disquieted and troubled, and vexed at every little
thing that happens? As if a King's son were to cry out that he is
undone for losing a toy; what an unworthy thing would this be! So
do you: you cry out as if you were undone and yet are a King's
son, you who stand in such relation to God, as to a father, you
dishonor your father in this; as if either he had not wisdom, or
power, or mercy enough to provide for you.

i i . The relation in which you
stand to Jesus Christ. You are the spouse of Christ. What! One
married to Jesus Christ and yet troubled and discontented? Have
you not enough in him? Does not Christ say to his spouse, as
Elkanah said to Hannah: 'Am not I better to thee than ten sons?'
(1 Samuel 1:8). So does not Christ your husband say to you, 'Am
not I better to you than thousands of riches and comforts, such
comforts as you murmur for want of?' Has not God given you his Son
and will he not with him give you all things? Has the love of God
to you been such as to give you his Son in marriage? Why are you
discontented and murmuring? Consider your relation to Jesus
Christ, as a spouse and married to him: his person is yours, and
so all the riches of Jesus Christ are yours, as the riches of a
husband are his wife's.

Though some husbands are so vile
that their wives may be forced to sue for maintenance, certainly
Jesus Christ will never deny maintenance to his spouse, it is a
dishonor for a husband to have the wife to whining up and down.
What! you are matched with Christ and are his spouse, and will you
murmur now, and be discontented in your spirit? You will observe
that with those who are newly married, when there is discontent
between the wife and the husband, their friends will shake their
heads say, 'They are not meeting with what they expected; you see
ever since they were married together how the man looks, and the
woman looks, they are not so cheery as they used to be. Surely it
is likely to prove an ill match.' But it is not so here, it shall
not be so between you and Christ. Oh, Jesus Christ does not love
to see his spouse with a scowling countenance; no man loves to see
discontent in the face of his wife, and surely Christ does not
love to see discontent in the face of his spouse.

iii. You stand in relation to
Christ, not only as a spouse, but as a member. You are bone of his
bone, and flesh of his flesh; and to have a member of Jesus Christ
in a condition of discontent exceedingly unworthy.

iv. He is your elder brother
likewise, and so you are a co-heir with him.

v . The relation in which you stand
to the Spirit of God. You are the temple of the Holy Ghost, the
Holy Ghost is your Comforter. It is he who is appointed to convey
all comforts from the Father and the Son, to the souls of his
people. And are you the temple of the Holy Ghost, and does he
dwell in you, and yet for all that you murmur for every little
thing? vi. The relation in which you stand to the angels. You are
made one body with them, for so Christ has joined principalities
and powers with his Church: they are ministering spirits for the
good of his people, to supply what they need, and you and they are
joined together, and Christ is the head of you and
angels.

vii. The relation in which you stand
to the saints. You are of the same body with them, they and you
make up but one mystical body with Jesus Christ, and if they are
happy you must needs be happy.

Oh, how beneath a Christian is a
murmuring spirit, especially when he considers the relations in
which he stands! 2. A Christian should consider, That murmuring
and discontentedness is below the high dignity which God has put
upon him. Do but consider the high dignity which God has put upon
you: the meanest Christian in the world is a lord of heaven and
earth. he has made us kings unto himself, kings to God, not kings
to men to rule over them; and yet I say, every Christian is lord
of heaven and earth, yea of life and death. That is, as Christ is
Lord of all, so he has made those who are his members lords of
all. 'All are yours', says the Apostle, 'even life and death,
every thing is yours.' It is a very strange expression, that death
should be theirs, death is yours, that is, you are, as it were,
lords over it, you have what shall make death your servant, your
slave, even death itself, your greatest enemy is turned to be your
slave. Faith makes a Christian as lord over all, lifted up in
excellence above all creatures that ever God made, except the
angels, and in some respect above them.

I say the poorest Christian who
lives is raised to a position above all creatures in the world
except angels, and above them in many respects too- and yet
discontented! That you who were as a firebrand of hell, and might
have been scorching and yelling and roaring there to all eternity,
yet that God should raise you to have a higher excellence in you
than there is in all the works of creation that ever he made
except angels, and other Christians, who are in your position!
Indeed, you are nearer the Divine nature than the angels, because
your nature is joined in a hypostatical union to the Divine
nature, and in that respect your nature is more honored than the
nature of the angels. And the death of Christ is yours. He died
for you and not for the angels, and therefore you are likely to be
raised above the angels in many respects. You who are in such a
position as this, you who are set apart to the end that God might
manifest to all eternity what the infinite power of a Deity is
able to raise a creature to-for that is the position of a saint, a
believer: his position is that he is set apart to the end that God
might manifest to all eternity what his infinite power is able to
do to make a creature happy.

Are you in such a position? Oh, how
low and beneath this position is a murmuring and discontented
heart for want of some outward comforts here in this world! How
unseemly it is that you should be a slave to every cross, that
every affliction shall be able to say to your soul, 'Bow down to
us'! We accounted it a great slavery, when men said to our souls,
'Bow down', as the cruel prelates were wont to do, in imposing
things upon men's consciences: in effect they said, 'Let your
consciences, your souls, bow down to us, that we may tread upon
them'. That is the greatest slavery in the world, that one man
should say to another, 'Let your consciences, your souls, bow
down, that we may tread upon them'; but will you allow every
affliction to say, 'Bow down that we may tread upon you'? Truly it
is so, when your heart is overcome with murmuring and discontent;
know that those afflictions which have caused your to murmur have
said to you, 'Bow down that we may tread upon you.' Nay, not
afflictions, but the very Devil prevails against you in this. Oh!
how this is beneath the happy position to which God has raised a
Christian! What! will the son of a King let every base fellow come
and bid him bow down, that he may tread upon his neck? That is
what you do in every affliction: the affliction, the cross and
trouble that befalls you, says, 'Bow down that we may come and
tread upon you.' 3. Murmuring is below the spirit of a Christian.
The spirit of every Christian should be like the spirit of his
Father: every father loves to see his spirit in his child, loves
to see his image, not the image of his body only, to say, here is
a child for all the world like his father, but he has the spirit
of his father too. A father who is a man of spirit loves to see
his spirit in his child, rather than the features of his body. Oh,
the Lord who is our Father loves to see his Spirit in us. Great
men love to see great spirits in their children, and the great God
loves to see a great spirit in his children. We are one spirit
with God and with Christ, and one spirit with the Holy Ghost;
therefore, we should have a spirit that might manifest the glory
of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost in our spirits: that is the
spirit of a Christian.

The spirit of a Christian should be
a lion-like spirit; as Jesus Christ is the Lion of the tribe of
Judah (so he is called) so we should manifest something of the
lion-like spirit of Jesus Christ. He manifested his lion-like
spirit in passing through all afflictions and troubles whatsoever
without any murmuring against God. When he came to drink that
bitter cup, and even the dregs of it, he prayed indeed to God that
if it were possible it might pass from him, but immediately: 'Not
my will, but thy will be done.' As soon as ever he mentioned the
passing of the cup from him, though it was the most dreadful cup
that ever was drunk since the world began, yet at the mentioning
of it: 'Not my will, but thy will be done.' Here Christ showed a
lion-like spirit in going through all kinds of afflictions
whatsoever, without any murmuring against God in them. Now a
murmuring spirit is a base, dejected spirit, cross and contrary to
the spirit of a Christian, and it is very base.

I remember that the Heathens
accounted it very base. Plutarch reports of a certain people, who
used to manifest their disdain to men who were overmuch dejected
by any affliction, and condemned them to this punishment: to wear
women's clothes all their days, or for a certain space of time at
least, they should go in women's clothes I token of shame and
disgrace to them because they had such effeminate spirits. They
thought it against a manly spirit, and therefore, seeing they did
un-man themselves, they should go as women. Now, shall they
account it an unmanly spirit, to be overmuch dejected in
afflictions? and shall not a Christian account it an
unchristianlike spirit to be overmuch dejected by any affliction
whatsoever? I remember someone else compares murmuring spirits to
children, when they are weaning: what a great deal of stir you
have with your children when you wean then! how perverse and
vexing they are! So, when God would wean you from some outward
comforts in this world, oh, how fretting and discontented you are!
Children will not sleep themselves nor let their mothers sleep
when they are weaning; and so, when God would wean us from the
world, and we fret, vex, and murmur, this is a childish
spirit.

4. It is below the profession of a
Christian. The profession of a Christian- what is that? A
Christian's profession is to be dead to the world and to be alive
to God, that is his profession, to have his life hid with Christ
in God, to satisfy himself in God. What! is this your profession?
And yet if you have not everything you want, you murmur and are
discontented. In that you even deny your profession.

5. It is below that special grace of
faith. Faith is what overcomes the world; it makes all the
promises of God ours. Now when you look upon you the profession of
religion did God ever promise you that you would live at ease, and
quiet, and have no trouble? I remember Augustine has a similar
expression: 'What! is this your faith? Did I ever promise you (he
says) that you should flourish in the world? Are you a Christian
to that end? And is this your faith? I never made any such promise
to you when you took upon you to be a Christian.' Oh, it is very
contrary to your profession. You have no promise for this, that
you should not have such an affliction upon you.

And a Christian should live by his
faith. It is said that the just live by faith; now you should not
look after any other life but the life that you have by faith. You
have no ground for your faith to believe that you should be
delivered out of such an affliction, and then why should you
account it such a great evil to be under this affliction?
Certainly the good that we have in the ground for our faith is
enough to content our hearts here, and to all eternity.

A Christian should be satisfied with
what God has made the object of his faith. The object of his faith
is high enough to satisfy his soul, were it capable of a thousand
times more than it is. Now if you may have the object of your
faith you have enough to content your soul. And know that when you
are discontented for want of certain comforts, you should think
thus: God never promised me that I should have these comforts, at
this time, and in such a way as I would have. I am discontented
because I have not these things which God never yet promised me,
and therefore I sin much against the Gospel, and against the grace
of faith.

6. It is below a Christian because
it is below those helps that a Christian has more than others
have. They have the promises to help them, which others have not.
It is not so much for the heart of a Nabal to sink, because he has
nothing but the creature to uphold him. But it is much for a
Christian, who has the promises and ordinances to uphold his
spirit, which others have not.

7. It is below the expectation that
God has of Christians, for God expects not only that they should
be patient in afflictions, but that they should rejoice and
triumph in them. Now, Christians, when God expects this from you,
and you have not even attained to contentedness under afflictions!
Oh, this is beneath what God expects from you.

8. It is below what God has had from
other Christians. Others have not only been contented with little
trials, but they have triumphed over great afflictions, they have
suffered the spoiling of their goods with joy. Read the latter
part of the eleventh of the Hebrews, and you will find what great
things God has had from his people. Therefore not to be content
with smaller crosses must needs be a great evil.

6. THE SIXTH EVIL IN A MURMURING
SPIRIT IS, By murmuring you undo your prayers, for it is
exceedingly contrary to the prayer that you make to God. When you
come to pray to God, you acknowledge his sovereignty over you, you
come there to profess yourselves to be at God's disposal. What do
you pay for, unless you acknowledge that you are at his disposal?
Unless you will stand, as it were, at his disposal never come to
petition him. If you will come to petition him and yet will be
your own carver you go contrary to your prayers, to come as if you
would beg your bread at your Father's gates every day, and yet you
must do what you list: this is the undoing of the prayers of a
Christian. I remember reading that Latimer, speaking concerning
Peter who denied his master, said: 'Peter forgot his Paternoster,*
for that was, Hallowed be thy name, and thy kingdom come.'
[*Paternoster &emdash; The Lord's Prayer, so called because
the Latin version begins: 'Pater noster' (Our Father).] So we
may say, when you have murmuring and discontented hearts, you
forget your prayers, you forget what you have prayed for. What do
you pray, but, Give us this day our daily bread? (For you must
make the Lord's prayer a pattern for your prayers; that is
Christ's intention, that we should have it as a pattern and a
directory, as it were, how to make our prayers.) Now God does not
teach any of you to pray, Lord, give me so much a year, or let me
have this kind of cloth, and so many dishes at my table. Christ
does not teach you to pray so, but he teaches us to pray, 'Lord,
give us our bread,' showing that you should be content with a
little. What, have you not bread to eat? I hope there are none of
you here but have that.

Objection. But I do not know what
would become of my children if I were to die. Or if I have bread
now, I do not know where I shall get it from next week, or where I
shall get provision for the winter.

Answer. Where did Christ teach us to
pray, Lord, give us provision for so long a time? No, but if we
have bread for this day, Christ would have us content. Therefore
when we murmur because we have not so much variety as others have,
we do, as it were, forget our Paternoster. It is against our
prayers; we do not in our lives hold forth the acknowledgment of
the sovereignty of God over us as we seem to acknowledge in our
prayers.

Therefore when at any time you find
your murmuring, then do but reflect yourselves and think thus: Is
this according to my prayers, in which I held forth the sovereign
power and authority that God has over me? 7. THE SEVENTH THING
WHICH I ADD FOR THE EVIL OF DISCONTENT IS the woeful effects that
come to a discontented heart from murmuring. I will name you five;
there are five evil effects that come from a murmuring spirit: 1.
By murmuring and discontent in your hearts, you come to lose a
great deal of time. How many times do men and women, when they are
discontented, let their thoughts run, and are musing and
contriving, through their present discontentedness and let their
discontented thoughts work I in them for some hours together, and
they spend their time in vain! When you are alone you should spend
your time in holy meditation, but you are spending your time in
discontented thoughts. You complain that you cannot meditate, you
cannot think on good things, but if you begin to think of them a
little, soon your thoughts are off from them. But if you are
discontented with anything, then you can go alone, and muse, and
roll things up and down in your thoughts to feed a discontented
humor. Oh, labor to see this evil effect of murmuring, the losing
of your time.

2. It unfits you for duty. If a man
or woman is in a contented frame, you may turn such a one to
anything at any time, and he is fit to go to God at any time; but
when one is in a discontented condition, then a man or woman is
exceedingly unfit for the service of God. And it causes many
distractions in duty, it unfits for duty, and when you come to
perform duties, oh, the distractions that are in your duties, when
your spirits are discontented! When you hear any ill news from sea
and cannot bear it, or of any ill from a friend, or any loss or
cross, oh, what distractions do they cause in the performance of
holy duties! When you should be enjoying communion with God, you
are distracted in your thoughts about the trial that has befallen
you, whereas had you but a quiet spirit, though great trials
befell you, yet they would never hinder you in the performance of
any duty.

3. Consider what wicked risings of
heart and resolutions of spirit there are many times in a
discontented fit. In some discontented fits the heart rises
against God, and against others and sometimes it even has
desperate resolutions what to do to help itself. If the Lord had
suffered you to have done what you had sometimes thought to do, in
a discontented fit, what wretched misery you would have brought
upon yourselves! Oh, it was a mercy of God that stopped you; had
not God stopped you, but let you go on when you thought to help
yourselves this way and the other way, oh, it would have been ill
with you. Do but remember those risings of heart and wicked
resolutions that sometimes you have had in a discontented mood,
and learn to be humbled for that.

4. Unthankfulness is an evil and a
wicked effect which comes from discontent. The Scripture ranks
unthankfulness among very great sins. men and women, who are
discontented, though they enjoy many mercies from God, yet they
are thankful for none of them, for this is the vile nature of
discontent, to lessen every mercy of God. It makes those mercies
they have from God as nothing to them, because they cannot have
what they want.

Sometimes it is so even in spiritual
things: if they do not have all they desire, the comforts that
they would have, then what they do have is nothing to them. Do you
think that God will take this well? Suppose you were to give a
friend or a relation some money to trade with and he came and
said: 'What is this you have given me? There are only a few coins
here.

This is no good to me.' This would
be intolerable to you, that he should react to your gift like
this, just because you have not given him as much money as he
would like. It is just the same when you are ready to say: 'All
that God has given me is worthless. It is no good to me. It is
only a few coins.' For you to say that what God gives you is
nothing and only common gifts, all given in hypocrisy, and
counterfeit, when they are the precious graces of God's Spirit and
worth more than thousands of worlds &emdash; how ungrateful it is!
The graces of God's Spirit are nothing to a discontented heart who
cannot have all that he would have. And so for outward blessings:
God has given you health of body, and strength, and has given you
some competence for your family, some way of livelihood, yet
because you are disappointed in something that you would have,
therefore all is nothing to you. Oh, what unthankfulness in this!
God expects that every day you should spend some time in blessing
his name for what mercy he has granted to you. There is not one of
you in the lowest condition but you have an abundance of mercies
to bless God for, but discontentedness makes them nothing. I
remember an excellent saying that Luther has: 'This is the
rhetoric of the Spirit of God' he said, 'to extenuate evil things,
and to amplify good things: if a cross comes to make the cross but
little, but if there is a mercy to make the mercy great.' Thus, if
there is a cross, where the Spirit of God prevails in the heart,
the man or woman will wonder that it is no greater, and will bless
God that though there is such a cross, yet that it is no greater,
and will bless God that though there is such a cross, yet that it
is no more: that is the work of the Spirit of God; and if there is
a mercy, he wonders at God's goodness, that God granted so great a
mercy.

The Spirit of God extenuates evils
and crosses, and magnifies and amplifies all mercies; and makes al
mercies seem to be great, and all afflictions seem to be little.
But the Devil goes quite contrary, says Luther, his rhetoric is
quite otherwise: he lessens God's mercies, and amplifies evil
things. Thus, a godly man wonders at his cross that it is not
more, a wicked man wonders his cross is so much: 'Oh', he says,
'none was ever so afflicted as I am.' If there is a cross, the
Devil puts the soul to musing on it, and making it greater than it
is, and so it brings discontent.

And on the other side, if there is a
mercy, then it is the rhetoric of the Devil to lessen the mercy.
'Aye, indeed', he says, 'the thing is a good thing, but what is
it? It is not a great matter, and for all this, I may be
miserable.' Thus the rhetoric of Satan lessens God's mercies, and
increases afflictions.

I will give you a striking example
of this which we find in Scripture: it is the example of Korah,
Dathan and Abiram in

Numbers 16:12, 13: 'And Moses sent
to call Dathan, and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: which said, We will
not come up: Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out
of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the
wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?'
Mark, the slighted the land that they were going to, the land of
Canaan; that was the land that God promised them should flow with
milk and honey.

But mark here their
discontentedness, because they met with some troubles in the
wilderness: oh, it was to slay them, they make their affliction in
the wilderness greater than it was, oh, it was to kill them,
though indeed it was to carry them to the land of Canaan. But
though their deliverance from Egypt was a great mercy, they made
it to be nothing, for they say 'You have brought us out of a land
that floweth with milk and honey' &emdash; what land was that? It
was the land of Egypt, the land of their bondage, but they call it
a land that flowed with milk and honey, though it was the land of
their most cruel and unbearable bondage; whereas they should have
blessed God as long as they lived for delivering them out of the
land of Egypt. Yet, meeting with some cross they make their
deliverance from Egypt no mercy, no, it was rather a misery to
them. 'Oh', they say, 'Egypt was a land that flowed with milk and
honey.' Oh, what baseness there is in a discontented spirit! A
discontented spirit, out of envy to God's grace, will make mercies
that are great little, yea to be none at all. Would one ever have
thought that such a word could have come from the mouth of an
Israelite, who had been under bondage and cried under it? and yet
when they meet with a little cross in their way they say, 'You
have brought us out of the land that floweth with milk and honey.'
To say they were better before than now, and yet before, they
could not be contented either: this is the usual, unthankful
expression of a discontented heart.

It is so with us now when we meet
with any cross in our estates, any taxation and trouble,
especially if any among you have been where the enemy have
prevailed, you are ready to say: 'We had plenty before, and we are
now brought to a condition of hardship, we were better before when
we had the Prelates and others to domineer,' and so we are in
danger of being brought into that bondage again. Oh, let us take
heed of this, of a discontented heart; there is this woeful cursed
fruit of discontent, to make men and women unthankful for all the
mercies God has granted to them, and this is a sore and grievous
evil.

5. Finally, there is this evil
effect in murmuring, it causes shiftings of spirit. Those who
murmur and are discontented are liable to temptations to shift for
themselves in sinful and ungodly ways; discontent is the ground of
shifting courses and unlawful ways. How many of you are condemned
by your consciences of this, that in the time of your afflictions
you have sought to shift for yourselves by ways that were sinful
against God, and your discontent was the bottom and ground of it?
If you would avoid shifting for yourselves by wicked ways, labor
to mortify this sin of discontent, to mortify it at the
root.

8. THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF FOLLY,
EXTREME FOLLY, IN A DISCONTENTED HEART; IT IS A FOOLISH
SIN.

I shall open the folly of it in many
respects.

1. It takes away the present comfort
of what you have, because you have not something that you would
have. What a foolish thing is this, that because I have not got
what I want, I will not enjoy the comfort of what I have! Do you
not account this folly in your children?: you give them some food
and they are not contented, perhaps they say it is not enough,
they cry for more, and if you do not immediately give them more
they will throw away what they have. Though you account it folly
in your children, yet you deal thus with God: God gives you many
mercies, but your see others have more mercies than you and
therefore you cry for more; but God does not give you what you
want and because of that you throw away what you have &emdash; is
not this folly in your hearts? It is unthankfulness.

2. By all your discontent you cannot
help yourselves, you cannot get anything by it. Who by taking care
can add one cubit to his stature, or make one hair that is white
to be black? You may vex and trouble yourselves but you can get
nothing by it. Do you think that the Lord will come in mercy a
whit the sooner because of the murmuring of your spirits? Oh, no,
but mercy will be rather deferred the longer for it; though the
Lord was about to send mercy before, yet this disorder of your
hearts is enough to put him out of his course of mercy, and though
he had thoughts that you should have the thing before, yet now you
shall not have it. If you had a mind to give something to your
child, yet if you see him in a discontented, fretting mood you
will not give it him. And this is the very reason why many mercies
are denied to you, because of your discontent. You are
discontented for want of them, and therefore you do not get them,
you deprive yourselves of the enjoyment of your own desires,
because of the discontent of your hearts, because you do not get
your desires, and is not this a foolish thing? 3. There are
commonly many foolish attitudes that a discontented heart is
guilty of. They carry themselves foolishly towards God and towards
men.

Such expressions, and such kinds of
behavior come from them, as to make their friends ashamed of them
many times. Their carriages are so unseemly, they are a shame to
themselves and their friends.

4. Discontent and murmuring eats out
the good and sweetness of a mercy before it comes. It God should
give a mercy for the want of which we are discontented, yet the
blessing of the mercy is, as it were, eaten out before we come to
have it. Discontent is like a worm that eats the meat out of the
nut, and then when the meat is eaten out of it, you have the
shell. If a child were to cry for a nut of which the meat has been
eaten out, and is all worm-eaten, what good would the nut be to
the child? So you would fain have a certain outward comfort and
you are troubled for the want of it, but the very trouble of your
spirits is the worm that eats the blessing out of the
mercy.

Then perhaps God gives it to you,
but with a curse mixed with it, so that you were better not to
have it than have it. If God gives the man or woman who is
discontented for want of some good thing, that good thing before
they are humbled for their discontent, such a man or woman can
have no comfort from the mercy, but it will be rather an evil than
a good to them.

Therefore for my part, if I should
have a friend or brother or one who was as dear to me as my own
soul, whom I saw discontented for the want of such a comfort, I
would rather pray, 'Lord, keep this thing from them, till you
shall be pleased to humble their hearts for their discontent; let
not them have the mercy till they come to be humbled for their
discontent over the want of it, for if they have it before that
time they will have it without any blessing.' Therefore it should
be your care, when you find your hearts discontented for the want
of anything, to be humbled for it, thinking thus with yourselves:
Lord, if what I so immoderately desire were to come to me before I
am humbled for my discontent for want of it, I am certain I could
have no comfort from it, but I should rather have it as an
affliction to me.

There are many things which you
desire as your lives, and think that you would be happy if you had
them, yet when they come you do not find such happiness in them,
but they prove to be the greatest crosses and afflictions that you
ever had, and on this ground, because your hearts were
immoderately set upon them before you had them. As it was with
Rachael: she must have children or else she died &emdash; 'Well',
said God, 'seeing you must, you shall have them,' but though she
had a child she died according to what she said, 'Give me children
or else I die.' So in regard of any other outward comforts, people
may have the thing, but oftentimes they have it so as it proves
the heaviest cross to them that they ever had in all their
lives.

The child whom you were discontented
for the want of, may have been sick, and your hearts were out of
temper for fear that you should lose it; God restores it, but he
restores it so as he makes it a cross to your hearts all the days
of your lives. Someone observes concerning manna, 'When the people
were contented with the allowance that God allowed them, then it
was very good, but when they would not be content with God's
allowance, but would gather more than God would have them, then,
says the text, there were worms in it.' So when we are content
with our conditions, and what God disposes of us to be in, there
is a blessing in it, then it is sweet to us, but if we must needs
have more, and keep it longer than God would have us to have it,
then there will be worms in it and it will be no good at
all.

5. It makes our affliction a great
deal worse than otherwise it would be. it in no way removes our
afflictions, indeed, while they continue, they are a great deal
the worse and heavier, for a discontented heart is a proud heart,
and a proud heart will not pull down his sails when there comes a
tempest and storm. If a sailor, when a tempest and storm comes, is
perverse and refuses to pull down his sails, but is discontented
with the storm, is his condition any better because he is
discontented and will not pull down his sails? Will this help him?
Just so is it, for all the world, with a discontented heart: a
discontented heart is a proud heart, and he out of his pride is
troubled with his affliction, and is not contented with God's
disposal, and so he will not pull down his spirit at all, and make
it bow to God in this condition into which God has brought him.
now is his condition any better because he will not pull down his
spirit? No, certainly, abundantly worse, it is a thousand to one
but that the tempest and storm will overwhelm his soul.

Thus you see what a great deal of
folly there is in the sin of discontentment.

9. THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF DANGER
IN THE SIN OF DISCONTENT, FOR IT HIGHLY PROVOKES THE WRATH OF
GOD.

It is a sin that much provokes God
against his creature. We find most sad expressions in Scripture,
and examples too, how God has been provoked against many for their
discontent. In Numbers 14 you have a noteworthy text, and one
would think that it was enough for ever to make you fear
murmuring: in the

26th verse, it is said, 'The Lord
spake unto Moses and unto Aaron saying' &emdash; what did he say?
&emdash; 'How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which
murmur against me?' How long shall I bear with them? says God,
this evil congregation, oh it is an evil congregation that murmur
against me, and how long shall I bear with them? They murmur, and
they have murmured; as those who have murmuring spirits, and
murmuring dispositions, they will murmur again, and again. How
long shall I bear with this evil congregation that murmur against
me? How justly may God speak this of many of you who are this
morning before the Lord: how long shall I bear with this wicked
man or woman who murmurs against me, and has usually in the course
of their lives murmured against me when anything falls out
otherwise than they would have it? And mark what follows after, 'I
have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel.' You murmur,
and maybe others do not hear you, it may be that you do not speak
at all, or but half-words; yet God hears the language of your
murmuring hearts, and those muttering speeches, and those
half-words that come from you. And observe further in this verse
how the Lord repeats this sin of murmuring,' 'How long shall I
bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me?'

Secondly, 'I have heard their
murmuring.' Thirdly, 'which they murmur against me'. Murmur,
murmur, murmur &emdash; three times in one verse he repeats it,
and this is to show his indignation against the thing. When you
express indignation against a thing, you repeat it over again, and
again; now the Lord, because he would express his indignation
against this sin, repeats it over again, and again, and it follows
in the 28th verse, 'Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the
Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so I will do to you.' Mark,
God swears against a murmurer. Sometimes in your discontent
perhaps you will be ready to swear. Do you swear in your
discontent? &emdash; So does God swear against you for your
discontent. And what would God do to them? 'Doubtless your
carcasses shall fall in the wilderness; and you shall not come
into the land concerning which I sware, to make you dwell
therein.' It is as if God should say, 'If I have any life in me
your lives shall go for it, as I live it shall cost you your
lives.' A discontented, murmuring fit of yours may cost you your
lives. You see how it provokes God; there is more evil in it than
you were aware of. If may cost you your lives, and therefore look
to yourselves, and learn to be humbled at the very beginnings of
such disorders in the heart. So in Psalm 106:24, 25: 'Yea, they
despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word; but
murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the
Lord. Therefore he lifted up his hand against them to overthrow
them in the wilderness.' There are several things to be observed
in this Scripture.

We spoke before of how a murmuring
heart slights God's mercies, and so it is here: 'They despised the
pleasant land.' And a murmuring heart is contrary to faith: 'they
believed not his word, but (says the text) they murmured in their
tents, and hearkened not to the voice of the Lord.' Many men and
women will hearken to the voice of their own base murmuring
hearts, who will not hearken to the voice of the Lord. If you
would hearken to the voice of the Lord, there would not be such
murmuring as there is.

But mark what follows after it; you
must not think to please yourselves in your murmuring
discontentedness, and think that no evil shall come of it:
'Therefore he lifted up his hand against them to overthrow them.'
You who are discontented lift up your hearts against God, and you
cause God to lift up his hand against you. Perhaps God lays his
finger on you softly in some afflictions, in your families or
elsewhere, and you cannot bear the hand of God, which lies upon
you as tenderly as a tender-hearted nurse lays her hand on a
child. You cannot bear the tender hand of God which is upon you in
a lesser affliction; it would be just for God to lift up his hand
against you in another kind of affliction. Oh, a murmuring spirit
provokes God exceedingly.

There is another place in

16th of Numbers: compare the 41st
verse, and the 46th verse together: 'But on the morrow all the
congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and
Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord,' and mark in
the 46th verse: 'And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer and put
fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go
quickly unto the congregation and make atonement for them, for
there is wrath gone out from the Lord, the plague is begun.' Mark
how God's wrath is kindled: in the 41st verse, the congregation
had murmured, and they murmured only against Moses and Aaron
(perhaps you murmur more directly against God) and that was
against God, in murmuring against God's ministers. it was against
God but not so directly; if you murmur against those whom God
makes instruments, because you have not got everything that you
would have, against the Parliament, or such and such who are
public instruments, it is against God. It was only against Moses
and Aaron that the Israelites murmured, and they said that Moses
and Aaron had killed the people of the Lord, though it was the
hand of God that was upon them for their former wickedness in
murmuring. It is usual for wicked, vile hearts to deal thus with
God, when God's hand is a little upon them, to murmur again and
again, and so to bring upon themselves infinite kinds of evils.
But now the anger of God was quickly kindled: 'Oh', said Moses,
'go, take the censer quickly, for wrath is gone out from Jehovah,
the plague is begun.' So while you are murmuring in your families,
the wrath of God may quickly go out against you. In a morning or
evening, when you are murmuring, the wrath of God may come quickly
upon your families or persons. You are never so prepared for
present wrath as when you are in a murmuring, discontented fit.
Those who stand by and see you in a murmuring, discontented fit,
have cause to say: 'Oh, let us go and take the censer, let us go
to prayer, for we are afraid that wrath is gone out against this
family, against this person.' And it would be a very good thing
for you, who are a godly wife, when you see your husband come home
and start murmuring because things are not going according to his
desire, to go to prayer, and say: 'Lord, pardon the sin of my
husband.' And similarly for a husband to go to God in prayer,
falling down and beseeching him that wrath may not come out
against his family for the murmuring of his wife.

The truth is that at this day there
has been, at least lately, as much murmuring in England as there
ever was, and eve in this very respect the plague has begun. This
very judgment comes many times on those who are discontented in
their families, and are always grumbling and murmuring at any
thing that falls out amiss.

I say this text of Scripture in
Numbers clearly holds forth that the Lord brings the plague upon
men for this sin of murmuring; he does it in kingdoms and
families, and on particular persons. Though we cannot always point
out the particular sin that God brings it for, yet we should
examine how far we are guilty of the sin of murmuring, because the
Scripture holds forth this so clearly, that when Moses but heard
that they murmured: 'Do they murmur?' he said, 'go forth quickly
and seek to pacify the anger of God, for wrath is gone out, and
the plague is begun.' And you have a notable example of God's
heavy displeasure against murmuring in 1 Corinthians 10:10:
'Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured, and were
destroyed of the destroyer.' Take heed of murmuring as some of
them did &emdash; he speaks of the people of Israel in the
wilderness &emdash; for, he says, what came of it? They were
destroyed of the destroyer. Now the destroyer is thought to be the
fiery serpents that were sent among them. They murmured and God
sent fiery serpents to sting them. What! do you think that a
certain cross and affliction stings you? Perhaps such an
affliction is upon you, and it seems to be grievous for the
present; what! do your murmur and repine? God has greater crosses
to bring upon you. Those people who murmur for want of outward
comforts, for want of water, and for the want of bread, murmur,
but the Lord sends fiery serpents among them. I would say to a
murmuring heart, 'Woe to you that strive with your maker! Woe to
that man, that woman who strives against their maker! What else
are you doing but striving against your maker? Your maker has the
absolute disposal of you, and will you strive against him? What is
the murmuring, discontented heart of yours doing but wrangling and
contending and striving even with God himself? Oh, woe to him who
strives against his maker! I may further say to you, as God spoke
to Job, when he was impatient (

Job 38:1, 2): 'Now God spake', says
the text, 'out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that
darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?' So, do you speak
against God's way, and his providences which have taken place
concerning your condition and outward comforts? Who is this? Who
is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Where
is the man or woman whose heart is so bold and impudent that they
dare to speak against the administration of God's providence? 10.
THERE IS A GREAT CURSE OF GOD UPON MURMURING AND DISCONTENT; SO
FAR AS IT PREVAILS IN ONE WHO IS WICKED, IT HAS THE CURSE OF GOD
UPON IT.

In Psalm 59:15, see what the curse
of God is upon wicked and ungodly men: 'Let them wander up and
down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.' That is the
imprecation and curse upon wicked and ungodly men, that if they
are not satisfied they shall grudge. When you are not satisfied in
your desires and find your heart grudging against God, apply this
Scripture &emdash; what! is the curse of the wicked upon me? This
is the curse that is threatened upon wicked and ungodly ones, that
they shall grudge if they be not satisfied.

And in Deuteronomy 28:67, it is
threatened as a curse of God upon men that they cannot be content
with their present condition: 'But they shall say in the morning,
Would God it were even! and at even, Would God it were morning!'
So they lie tossing up and down and cannot be content with any
condition that they are in, because of the sore afflictions that
are upon them.

Therefore it is further threatened
as a curse upon them, in the 34th verse, that they should be mad
for the sight of their eyes which they should see: this is but the
extremity of their discontentedness, that is, they shall be so
discontented, that they shall even be mad. Many men and women in
discontented moods are a mad sort of people, and though you may
please yourselves with such a mad kind of behavior, you should
know that it is a curse of God upon men to be given up to a kind
of madness for evils which they imagine have come upon them, and
which they fear. In the 47th verse, there is a striking expression
to show the curse of God on murmuring hearts: The Lord threatens
the curses which shall be upon them, and says (verses 45-47): 'The
curses shall pursue thee, and they shall be upon thee for a sign,
and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever: Because thou
servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness
of heart, for the abundance of all things.' God here threatens to
bring this curse upon them, so as to make them a wonder and a sign
to others. Why? Because they served not the Lord with joyfulness
of heart, therefore God would bring such a curse upon them as
would make them a wonder to all that were about them. Oh, how far
are you, then, who have a murmuring heart, from serving the Lord
with joyfulness! 11. THERE IS MUCH OF THE SPIRIT OF SATAN IN A
MURMURING SPIRIT.

The Devil is the most discontented
creature in the world, he is the proudest creature that is, and
the most discontented creature, and the most dejected creature.
Now, therefore, so much discontent as you have, so much of the
spirit of Satan you have. It was the unclean spirit that went up
and down and found no rest; so when a man or woman's spirit has no
reset, it is a sign that it has much of the unclean spirit, of the
spirit of Satan, and you should think with yourself, Oh, Lord,
have I the spirit of Satan upon me? Satan is the most discontented
spirit that is, and oh! how much of his spirit have I upon me who
can find no rest at all? 12. IF YOU HAVE A MURMURING SPIRIT, YOU
MUST THEN HAVE DISQUIET ALL THE DAYS OF YOUR LIFE.

It is as if a man in a great crowd
were to complain that other folks touch him. While we are in this
world God has so ordered things that afflictions must befall us;
and if we will complain and be discontented at every cross and
affliction, why, we must complain and be discontented all the days
of our lives! Indeed, God in just judgment will let things fall
out on purpose to vex those who have vexing spirits and
discontented hearts; and therefore it is necessary that they
should live disquieted all their days. People will not be troubled
much if they upset those who are continually murmuring. Oh, they
will have disquiet all their days! 13. FINALLY, THERE IS THIS
FURTHER DREADFUL EVIL IN DISCONTENT AND MURMURING: God may justly
withdraw his care of you, and his protection over you, seeing God
cannot please you in his administration.

We would say so to discontented
servants: If you are not pleased, better yourselves when you will.
If you have a servant not content with his diet and wages, and
work, you say, Better yourselves; so may God justly say to us
&emdash; we who profess ourselves servants to him, to be in his
work, and yet are discontented with this thing or that in God's
household, God might justly say &emdash; Better yourselves. What
is God should say to any of you, If my care over you does not
please you, then take care of yourselves, if my protection over
you will not please you, then protect yourselves? Now all things
that befall you, befall you through a providence of God, and if
you are those who belong to God, there is a protection of God over
you, and a care of God. If God were to say, 'Well, you shall not
have the benefit of my protection any longer, and I will take no
further care of you', would not this be a most dreadful judgment
of God from Heaven upon you? Take heed what you do then in being
discontented with God's will towards you, for, indeed, on account
of discontent this may befall you. That is the reason why many
people, over whom God's protection has been ver gracious for a
time, when they have thriven abundantly, yet afterwards almost all
who behold them may say of them that they live as if God had cast
off his care over them, and as if God did not care what befell
them.

Now then, my brethren, put all these
points together, those we spoke of in the last chapter, and these
points that have been added now in this chapter, for setting out a
murmuring and discontented spirit. Oh, what an ugly face has this
sin of murmuring and discontentedness! Oh, what cause is there
that we should lay our hands upon our hearts, and go away and be
humbled before the Lord because of this! Whereas your thoughts
were wont to be exercised about providing for yourselves, and
getting more comforts for yourselves, let the stream of your
thoughts now be turned to humble yourselves for your
discontentedness. Oh, that your hearts may break before God, for
otherwise you will fall to it again! Oh, the wretchedness of man's
heart! You find in Scripture, concerning the people of Israel, how
strangely they fell to their murmuring, again and again. Do but
observe three texts of Scripture for that, the first in the 15th
of Exodus at the beginning. There you have Moses and the
congregation singing to God and blessing God for his mercy: 'Then
sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and
spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed
gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.'
And then: 'The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my
salvation, he is my God and I will prepare him an habitation, my
father's God and I will exalt him.' So he goes on: 'and who is
like unto thee, O Lord, amongst the gods? who is like thee,
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?' Thus
their hearts triumphed in God, but mark, before the chapter is
ended, in the 23rd verse: 'When they came to Marah (in the same
chapter) they could not drink of the waters of Marah for they were
bitter, therefore the name of it was called Marah; and the people
murmured against Moses.' After so great a mercy as this, what
unthankfulness was there in their murmuring! Then God gave them
water, but in the very next chapter they fell to their murmuring.
You do not read that they were humbled for their former murmuring,
and therefore they murmur again (Exodus 16:1 ff.): 'All the
congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of
Sin, etc.

And the whole congregation' (in the
second verse) 'of the children of Israel murmured against Moses
and against Aaron in the wilderness, and the chlordane of Israel
said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord
in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we
did eat bread to the full.' now they want flesh; they wanted water
before, but now they want meat. They fell to murmuring again, they
were not humbled for this murmuring against God, not even when God
gave them flesh according to their desires, but they fell to
murmuring again: they wanted somewhat else. In the very next
chapter (they did not go far), in the

17th of Exodus at the beginning:
'And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from
the wilderness of Sin and pitched in Rephidim; and there was no
water for the people to drink.' Then in the second verse:
'Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us
water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye
with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?' And in the third verse:
'And the people thirsted for water, and the people murmured
against Moses and said, Wherefore is this, that thou hast brought
us up out of Egypt, to kill us, and our children, and our cattle
with thirst?' So one time after another, as soon as ever they had
received the mercy, then they were a little quieted, but they were
not humbled. I bring these Scriptures to show this, that if we
have not been humbled for murmuring, when we meet with the next
cross we will fall to murmuring again.

6. AGGRAVATIONS OF THE SIN OF
MURMURING Now because it is very hard to work upon a murmuring
spirit, there are many aggravations which we must consider for the
further setting out of the greatness of this sin.

1. To murmur when we enjoy an
abundance of mercy; the greater and the more abundant the mercy
that we enjoy, the greater and viler is the sin of murmuring. For
example, when God had newly delivered the people out of the house
of bondage, for them to murmur, because they lack some few things
that they desire, oh, to sin against God after a great mercy, is a
great aggravation, and a most abominable thing. Now, my brethren,
the Lord granted to us this summer, heaped mercies upon us, one
mercy upon another! What a condition were we in at the beginning
of this summer! And what a different condition are we in now! Oh,
what a mercy is it that the Lord has not taken advantage of us,
that he has not made those Scriptures before mentioned good upon
us for all our murmuring! The Lord has gone on with one mercy
after another.

We hear of mercy in Bristol, and
mercy to our brethren in Scotland. But if after this anything
should befall us that is contrary to us, and we should be ready to
murmur again at once-Oh, let us not so requite God for those
mercies of his! Oh, let us take heed of giving God any ill
requital for his mercies! Oh, give God praise according to his
excellent greatness, to his excellent goodness and grace! And now
has God given to you the contentment of your hearts? Take heed of
being the cause of any grief to your brethren. Do not think that
because God has been gracious to you, that therefore he has given
you liberty to bring them into bondage. Oh, let not there be such
an ill effect of God's mercy to you, as for you for to exclude, by
petitioning, or any other way, your brethren whom the Lord has
been pleased to make instruments of your peace; let not that be
the fruit of it, nor to desire anything that yourselves do not yet
understand. God is very jealous of the glory of his mercy, and if
any ill use should be made of the mercy of God after we enjoy it,
Oh, it would go to the heart of God. Nothing is more grievous to
the heart of God than the abuse of mercy, as, for example, if any
way that is hard and rigid should be taken towards our brethren,
and those especially whom God has made such special instruments of
good to us, who have been willing to venture their lives and all
for us; if now, when we have our turns served, we let God and his
people and servants who helped to save us shift for themselves as
well as they can. This is a great aggravation of your sin, to sin
against the mercies of God.

For men and women to be discontented
in the midst of mercies, in enjoyment of an abundance of mercies,
aggravates the sin of discontent and murmuring. To be discontented
in any afflicted condition is sinful and evil, but to be
discontented when we are in the midst of God's mercies, when we
are not able to count the mercies of God, still to be discontented
because we have not got all we would have, this is a greater evil.
The Lord this summer has multiplied mercies one after another, the
Lord has made this summer a continued miracle of mercy. Never did
a Kingdom enjoy (in so little a space of time) such mercies one
upon another. Now the public mercies of God should quiet our
hearts and keep us from discontent. The sin of discontent for
private afflictions is exceedingly aggravated by the consideration
of public mercies to the land. When the Lord has been so merciful
to the land, will you be fretting and murmuring, because you have
not in your family all the comforts that you would have? Just as
it is a great aggravation of a man's evil for him to rejoice
immediately in his own private comforts when the Church is in
affliction; when the public suffers grievous and hard troubles, if
any man shall then rejoice and give liberty to himself, at that
time to satisfy his flesh to the uttermost in all outward
comforts, this greatly aggravates his sin. So on the contrary for
any man to be immoderately troubled for any private afflictions
when it goes well with the public, with the Churches, is a great
aggravation of his sin. It may be that when the Church of God was
lowest, and it went worst in other parts, yet you did abate none
of the comforts of your flesh, but gave full liberty to satisfy
your flesh as formerly: Know that this was your sin. So, on the
other side, when we have received such mercies in public, all our
private afflictions should be swallowed up in the public mercies.
We should think with ourselves, Though we be afflicted for our
part, yet blessed be God, it goes well with the Church, and with
the public interest. Thus the consideration of that should
mightily quiet our hearts in all our private discontents, and if
it does not do so, know that our sin is much increased by the
mercies of God which are abroad. Now shall God's mercies aggravate
our sins? This is a sad thing, it is to turn the mercies of God to
be our misery. Did you not pray to God for these mercies which God
sent of late to the public? these great victories that God has
given, did you not pray for them? Now you have them, is not there
enough in them to quiet your heart for some private trouble you
meet with in your family? Is not there goodness enough there to
cure your discontent? Certainly, such mercies were not so worthy
to be prayed for, except they have so much excellence in them as
to countervail some private afflictions.

Public mercies are the aggravation
of private discontent. It is so of public discontent too: if we
receive so many public mercies, and yet if every thing goes not in
the public according as we desire, we are discontented at that, it
will greatly aggravate our sin. God may say, 'What! shall I bestow
such mercies upon people, and yet, if they have not everything
they would have, they will be discontented?' Oh, it is exceedingly
evil. So in particular, with the mercies that concern yourself,
your family: if you would consider, you have many more mercies
than afflictions-I dare boldly aver it concerning anyone in this
congregation. Let your afflictions be what they will, there is not
one of you, but has more mercies than afflictions.

Objection. You will say, Yes, but
you do not know what our afflictions are; our afflictions are such
as you do not conceive of, because you do not feel
them.

Answer. Though I cannot know what
your afflictions are, yet I know what your mercies are, and I know
they are so great that I am sure there can be no afflictions in
this world as great as the mercies you have. If it were only this
mercy, that you have this day of grace and salvation continued to
you: it is a greater mercy than any affliction. Set any affliction
beside this mercy and see which would weigh heaviest; this is
certainly greater than any affliction. That you have the day of
grace and salvation, that you are not now in hell, this is a
greater mercy. That you have the sound of the Gospel still in your
ears, that you have the use of your reason: this is a greater
mercy than your afflictions. That you have the use of your limbs,
your senses, that you have the health of your bodies; health of
body is a greater mercy than poverty is an affliction. No man who
is rich, if he is wise, and has a sickly body, would not part with
all his riches that he might have his health. Therefore your
mercies are more than your afflictions.

We find in Scripture how the Holy
Ghost aggravates the sin of discontent from the consideration of
mercies: you have a notable Scripture for this in the

16th of Numbers, verse 8 and
following. it is a speech of Moses to Korah and his company, when
they murmured: 'And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye
sons of Levi' (that is something, that you are sons of Levi),
'Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath
separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near
to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to
stand before the congregation to minister unto them?' Korah and
his company were murmuring, but mark how Moses aggravates this:
"Seemeth it a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath
separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to
himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord? etc.' You
see, it is a great honor that God puts upon a man, a great mercy
that he bestows upon any man, to separate him in the service for
himself, to come near to him, to employ him in the service of the
tabernacle, to minister to the congregation in holy things. This
is a great mercy, and indeed, it is such a mercy that one would
think there should be none upon whom God bestows such a mercy who
would have a murmuring heart for any affliction. It is true, many
ministers of God meet with hard things which might discourage
them, and trouble and grieve their spirits; but this
consideration, that God is pleased to employ them in such a
service near to himself, that though they cannot do good to
themselves, yet they may do good to others, this should quiet
them. And yet in the 10th verse: 'And he hath brought thee near to
him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee, and seek ye
the priesthood also?' Have you not enough already? But still you
are discontented with what you have, and must have more; do you
seek still more? 'Seek ye the priesthood also? For which cause
both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the
Lord: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?' What, has
God given you such things, and yet will you be murmuring, because
you cannot have more? Methinks that this place should keep
ministers from murmuring, no matter what afflictions and crosses,
and unkind dealings they meet with from men, yet still they should
go on with hearts quiet and discomforted in the work that God has
set them about, and labor to countervail all their afflictions by
being more abundant in the work of the Lord. That is the first
text of Scripture that shows how the mercies we enjoy are
aggravations of the sin of murmuring.

Then a second Scripture is in the
2nd of Job, verse 10. It is a speech of Job to his wife: What?
said Job, when his wife would have him curse God and die, which
was a degree beyond murmuring, Why, he said, 'thou speakest as one
of the foolish women. Shall we receive good at the hand of God and
not evil?' You see, Job helped himself against all murmuring
thoughts against the ways of God, with this consideration, that he
had received so much good from the Lord. What though we receive
evil, yet do we not receive good as well as evil? Let us set one
against the other: that is the way we should go. In the

7th chapter of Ecclesiastes, the
14th verse, you find a notable Scripture whereby you may see what
course is to be taken when the heart rises in murmuring: 'In the
day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity
consider.' What should they consider? Mark what follows: 'God also
hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man
should find nothing after him.' 'God also hath set the one over
against the other,' thus, when you are in prosperity, then indeed
every man can be joyful, but what if afflictions befall you, what
then? Then consider- consider what? 'That God hath set one over
against the other'; you have a great deal of affliction, and you
have had a great deal of prosperity, you have many troubles, and
you have had many mercies: make one column of mercies, and one
column of afflictions, and write one against the other, and see if
God has not filled one column as full as the other. You look
altogether upon your afflictions, but look upon your mercies
also.

For instance, it may be God has
afflicted you in one child, but he has been merciful to you in
another child: set one against the other. God afflicted David in
Absalom, but he was merciful to David in Solomon, and, therefore,
when David cried out: 'Oh Absalom, my son, my son,' it would have
quieted him. And it may be God has been merciful to you in a wife,
or in your husband: set that against your affliction. It may be,
God crosses you in your possessions, but that he employs you in
his service. It may be, you are afflicted in some of your friends,
but you have other friends who are great mercies to you, and
therefore you should set one against the other; and it concerns
you to do so, for those mercies will be aggravations of your sins,
and you had better make God's mercies a means to lessen your sins,
than to be the aggravation of your sins. If you do not make the
mercies of God help you against your murmuring, you will make them
aggravations of the sin of murmuring.

Take but this one further
consideration, and if you will but work it on your hearts, I hope
you may find a great deal of power in it. You find afflictions,
and your hearts are troubled and murmur; consider how God's
mercies aggravate this sin. in the midst of our sins we reckon
that God should accept our services. Do but consider thus: if in
the midst of our many sins we hope that God will accept our poor
services, why, then, should we not in the midst of our afflictions
bless God for his many mercies? Shall God be thus gracious to us
that, notwithstanding our many sins, yet he will not cast away our
poor duties and services that we perform? then why should not we
in the midst of our sufferings accept what mercies we have, and
not slight them and disregard them? If you, in the midst of God's
mercies, are not willing to bear the afflictions that God lays
upon you, then it is just with God that, in the midst of your
sins, he should not regard any of your duties. Now is there not as
much power in your manifold sins to cause God to reject your
duties and services, as there is power in afflictions (in the
midst of many mercies) to take off your heart from being affected
with God's mercies? And that is the first aggravation of the sin
of murmuring, to murmur in the midst of mercies.

2. A SECOND AGGRAVATION OF THE SIN
OF MURMURING IS, When we murmur for small things. Naaman's servant
said to him, Father (for so he called him), if the prophet had
required you to do some great thing, would not you have done it?
How much more this little thing.

So I say, if the Lord had required
you to suffer some great thing, would not you have been willing to
suffer? How much more this little thing! I remember reading in
Seneca a Heathen, that he has this comparison which is a very fine
one to set out the great evil of murmuring over small afflictions:
he says, Suppose a man has a very fine house to dwell in, and he
has beautiful orchards and gardens, set about with handsome tall
trees for ornament. If this man should now murmur because the wind
blows a few leaves off his trees, what a most unreasonable thing
it would be, for him to be weeping, and wringing his hands over
the loss of a few leaves, when he has plenty of all kinds of
fruit? Thus it is with many, says Seneca, though they have a great
many comforts about them, yet some little thing, the blowing off
of a few leaves from them is enough to disquiet him. So for us to
murmur, not because we have not got such a thing as we have need
of, but because we have not got what possibly we might have: this
is a very great sin.

Suppose God gives a woman a child
who has all his limbs and parts complete, a child who is very
comely, with excellent gifts, wit and memory, but maybe there is a
wart growing on the finger of the child, and she murmurs at it,
and, Oh, what an affliction this is to her! She is so taken up
with it, that she forgets to give any thanks to God for her child,
and all the goodness of God to her in the child is swallowed up in
that. Would you not say that this was folly and a very great evil
in a woman to do so? Truly, our afflictions, if we weighed them
aright, are but such things in comparison of our mercies Rebekah
had a mighty desire to have children, but because she found some
trouble in her body when she was with child, said, 'Why am I
thus?' As if she should say, I had rather have none, only because
she found a little pain and trouble in her body. To be
discontented when the affliction is small and little that
increases very much the sin of murmuring. It is too much for
anyone to murmur over the heaviest cross that can befall one in
this world, but to be discontented and murmur over some small
things, that is worse. I have read of someone who, when he lay
upon a heap of damask-roses, complained that one of the rose
leaves lay double under him. So we are ready thus for very small
things to make complaints, and to be discontented with our
condition, and that is a second aggravation.

3. FOR MEN OF GIFTS AND ABILITIES TO
WHOM GOD HAS GIVEN WISDOM, TO BE DISCONTENTED AND MURMUR, IS MORE
THAN IF OTHERS DO IT.

Murmuring and discontentedness is
too much in the weakest, yet we can bear with it sometimes in
children and women who are weak, but for those who are men, men of
understanding, who have wisdom, whom God employs in public
service, that they should be discontented with everything, is an
exceedingly great evil. For men, to whom God has given gifts and
wisdom, when things fall out amiss in their families, to be always
murmuring and repining, is a greater sin than for women or
children to do it.

4. THE CONSIDERATION OF THE FREENESS
OF ALL GOD'S MERCIES TO US.

Whatever we have is free of cost.
What though we have not got all we would have, seeing what we have
is free! If what we have were earned then it would be something,
but when we consider that all is from God, for us to murmur at his
dispensations is very evil. Suppose a man were entertained in a
friend's family, and did not pay for his board, but had it given
him for nothing: you would not expect him to be ready to find
fault with everything in the house, with servants, or with the
meat at table, or the like. If such a one who has plentiful
provision and all given him gratis, and pays nothing for his
board, should be discontented when a cup is not filled for him as
he would have it, or when he has to wait a minute longer for a
thing than he would, we would reckon this a great evil. So it is
with us: we are at God's table every day, and it is free, whatever
we have. It is accounted very unmannerly for a man at his friend's
table to find fault with things, though at home he may be
outspoken. Now when we are at the table of God (for all God's
administrations to us are his table) and are free from lusts, for
us to be finding fault and to be discontented is a great
aggravation of our sin.

5. FOR MEN AND WOMEN TO MURMUR AND
BE DISCONTENTED AND IMPATIENT, when they have the things for the
want of which they were discontented before. So it is sometimes
with children: they will cry for a thing, and when you give it
them, then throw it away; they are as much discontented as they
were before. So it was with the people of Israel, nothing would
quiet them but they must have a king. Samuel would have persuaded
them to the contrary, and told them what kind of king they would
have. And when they had a king: 'What shall a king do to us?'
(

Hosea 10:3); they were not contented
when they had one. So Rachel must have children or else she died,
and when she had a little trouble she was discontented too. So
that, as we say, we are not well, either full or
fasting.

6. FOR THOSE MEN AND WOMEN TO BE
DISCONTENTED AND MURMUR WHOM GOD HAS RAISED FROM MEAN AND LOW
ESTATES AND POSITIONS.

This is a very great aggravation, if
you are discontented now. There was a time when you were low
enough, and perhaps when you were so low then you said, 'Oh, if
God would deliver me from such an affliction, or give me but a
little more wealth, I should think myself in a good condition.'
But if God by his providence does raise you, you are still as
greedy of more as you were before, and as much discontented as you
were before. It is an evil thing for people who had mean breeding,
and poor beginnings to be so fastidious that nothing can please
them, whereas there was a time not long since when they were low
and mean enough. But it is very common for those who are raised
from a low and mean condition to be more nice and dainty and proud
when they are raised than others who are of better
breeding.

It is too much for a child to be
discontented in his father's house, but if you have taken a poor
beggar boy, who lay begging at your door, into your house, and set
him at your own table, could you bear that he should complain that
some dish is not well dressed, or the like? You could not bear it
if you children should do it, but you could bear it a great deal
better from them than to hear such a one do it. But you are a poor
beggar, and God has, as it were, taken you into his great family,
and if the Lord has been pleased to raise you higher, so that now
you have a competence, that you may live as a man, to be of use
and service in the place where God has set you: now will you be
discontented because you have not everything that you desire? We
know that when the prodigal came to himself, he said, 'In my
father's house is bread enough'; he did not say, 'There is good
cheer enough and a great deal of dainties.' No, he thought of
nothing but bread, 'There is bread enough.' So it is common for
men and women, when they are in a low condition, to think that if
they may have bread any competence, they will be contented and
bless God; but when they have their bread and things convenient,
then they must have more or else they are not contented. Know that
this is an exceedingly great aggravation to your discontent, when
you are raised from a very low condition, and yet you cannot be
contented with what you have.

7. FOR THOSE TO BE DISCONTENTED WHO
HAVE BEEN VERY GREAT SINNERS AND UNGODLY IN THEIR FORMER
LIFE.

For men and women who have much
guiltiness upon them, the guilt of very many sins upon them, who
have provoked God exceedingly against them, and have brought
themselves in a most dreadful manner under the sentence of God's
justice, and yet, God having been pleased to reprieve them-for
them to murmur and to be discontented with God's administrations
towards them is exceedingly evil. Oh, it were consideration enough
to quiet any murmuring in our hearts, to think thus, We are but
sinners, why should we not be sufferers who are sinners? But then
consider, we who are such great sinners, guilty of such notorious
sins that it is a wonder that we are out of Hell at the present,
yet for us to be discontented and murmur, how exceedingly this
increases our sin! Consider how we have crossed God in our sins;
then if God should cross us in the way of our sufferings, should
not we sit down quiet without murmuring? Certainly you never knew
what it was to be humbled for your manifold sins, who are
discontented at any administration of God towards you! 8. FOR MEN
WHO ARE OF LITTLE USE IN THE WORLD TO BE DISCONTENTED.

If you have a beast that you make
much use of, you will feed it well, but if you have but little use
of him then you turn him into the commons;* little provision
serves his turn because you do not make use of him. [*Common
grazing-ground.] If we lived so as to be exceedingly useful to
God and his Church, we might expect that God would be pleased to
come in some encouraging way to us, but when our consciences tell
us we live and do but little service for God, why, what if God
should turn us upon the commons? We are being fed according to our
work. Why should any creature be serviceable to you, who are so
little serviceable to God? To meditate on this alone would much
help us-to think: I am discontented because such and such
creatures are not serviceable to me, but why should I expect them
to be serviceable to me, when I am not serviceable to God? That is
the eighth aggravation.

9. FOR US TO BE DISCONTENTED AT A
TIME WHEN GOD IS ABOUT TO HUMBLE US.

It should be the care of a Christian
to observe what are God's ways towards him: What is God about to
do with me at this time? Is God about to raise me, to comfort me?
Let me accept God's goodness, and bless his name; let me join with
the work of God, when he offers mercy to me, to take the mercy he
offers. But again, is God about to humble me? Is God about to
break my heart, and to bring my heart down to him? Let me join
with God in this work of his: this is how a Christian should walk
with God. It is said that Enoch and Noah walked with God-walked
with God, what is that? It is, To observe what work God is now
about, and to join with God in that work of his; so that,
according as God turns this way or that way, the heart should turn
with God, and having workings suitable to the workings of God
towards him.

Now I am discontented and murmuring,
because I am afflicted; but that is why you are afflicted, because
God would humble you. The great design God has in afflicting you,
is to break and humble your heart; and will you maintain a spirit
quite opposite to the work of God? For you to murmur and be
discontented is to resist the work of God. God is doing you good
if you could see it, and if he is pleased to sanctify your
affliction to break that hard heart of yours, and humble that
proud spirit of yours, it would be the greatest mercy that you
ever had in all your life. Now will you still stand out against
God? It is just as if you were to say, 'Well, the Lord is about to
break me, and humble me, but he shall not': this is the language
of your murmuring and your discontentedness, though you dare not
say so But though you do not say so in words, yet it is certainly
the language of the temper of your spirit. Oh, consider what an
aggravation this is: I am discontented when God is about to work
such a work upon me as is for my good; yet I stand out against him
and resist him. That is another aggravation.

10. THE MORE PALPABLE AND REMARKABLE
THE HAND OF GOD APPEARS TO BRING ABOUT AN AFFLICTION, the greater
is the sin of murmuring and discontent under an affliction. It is
a great evil at any time to murmur and be discontented, but though
it is a sin, when I see an ordinary providence working for me, not
to submit to it, when I see an extraordinary providence working,
that is a greater sin. That is to say, when I see the Lord working
in some remarkable way about an affliction beyond what anyone
could have thought of, shall I resist such a remarkable hand of
God? shall I stand out against God, when I see he expresses his
will in such a remarkable manner that he would have me to be in
such a condition? Indeed, before the will of God is apparent, we
may desire to avoid an affliction, and may use means for it, but
when we see God expressing his will from heaven in a manner beyond
what is ordinary and more remarkable, then certainly it is right
for us to fall down and submit to him, and not to oppose God when
he comes with a mighty stream against us. It is our best way to
fall down before him and not to resist, for just as it is an
argument of a man's disobedience, when there is not only a command
against a sin but when God reveals his command in a terrible
way-the more solemn the command of God is, the greater is the sin
in breaking that command-so the more remarkable the hand of God is
in bringing an affliction upon us, the greater is our sin in
murmuring and being discontented. God expects us to fall down when
he, as it were, speaks from Heaven to us by name and says, 'Well,
I will have this spirit of yours down. Do you not see that my hand
is stretched out, my eyes are upon you, my thoughts are upon you,
and I must have that proud spirit of yours down?' Oh, then, it is
fitting for the creature to yield and submit to him. When you
speak in an ordinary manner to your servants or children, you
expect them to regard what you say, but when you make them stand
still by you, and speak to them in a more solemn way, then if they
should disregard what you say, you are very impatient. So,
certainly, God cannot take it well whenever he appears from Heaven
in such a remarkable way to bring an affliction, if then we do not
submit to him.

11. TO BE DISCONTENTED THOUGH GOD
HAS BEEN EXERCISING US FOR A LONG TIME UNDER AFFLICTIONS, YET
STILL TO REMAIN DISCONTENTED.

For a man or woman when an
affliction first befalls them, to have a murmuring heart, is an
evil, but to have a murmuring heart when God has been a long time
exercising them with affliction is more evil. Though a heifer when
the yoke is first put upon her wriggles up and down and will not
be quiet, if after many months or years it will not draw quietly,
the husbandman would rather fatten it and prepare it for the
butcher than be troubled any longer with it. So though the Lord
was content to pass by that discontented spirit of yours at first,
yet now that God has for a long time kept the yoke on you-you have
been under his afflicting hand, it may be, many years, and yet you
remain discontented still-it would be just if God were to bear
your murmuring no longer, and that your discontent under the
affliction were but a preparation for your destruction.

So, you see, when a man or woman has
been long exercised with afflictions, and is still discontented,
that is an aggravation of the sin. Mark that text in

Hebrews 12:11: 'Now', says the
Scripture, 'no chastening for the present is joyous, but grievous,
nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.' It is true
our afflictions are not joyous, but grievous. Though at first when
our affliction comes it is very grievous, afterwards, says the
text, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those
that are exercised thereby. When you have been a long time in the
school of afflictions, you are a very dullard in Christ's school
if you have not learned this contentment, 'I have learned', said
St. Paul, 'in every estate therewith to be content.' Paul had
learned this lesson quickly; you have been learning many years.
Perhaps you may say, as Heman did, that you are afflicted from
your youth up (

Psalm 88). Oh, it is a very evil
thing if, having been exercised long with afflictions, you are not
yet contented. The eye in a man's body is as tender as any part of
his body, but yet the eye is able to continue in and bear a great
deal of cold, because it is more used to it. So those who are used
to afflictions, those whom God exercises much with afflictions
(though they have tender spirits otherwise) yet they should have
learned contentedness by this time. A new cart may creak and make
a noise, but after it has been used a while it will not do so. So
when you are first a Christian and newly come into the work of
Christ, perhaps you make a noise and cannot bear affliction; but
are you an old Christian and yet will you be a murmuring
Christian? Oh, it is a shame for any who are old believers, who
have been a long time in the school of Jesus Christ, to have
murmuring and discontented spirits.

7. THE EXCUSES OF A DISCONTENTED
HEART But now, my brethren, because this discontented humor is
tough, and very hard to word upon-there is none who is
discontented but has something to say for their discontent-I shall
therefore seek to take away what every discontented heart has to
say for himself.

1. ONE THAT IS DISCONTENTED SAYS,
'IT IS NOT DISCONTENT; IT IS A SENSE OF MY CONDITION.' I hope you
would have me sensible of my condition. Perhaps when God takes
away a friend or some other comfort, they are inordinately
sorrowful, and wringing their hands as if they were undone; but
let anyone speak to them, and they say, 'Would you not have me
sensible of my affliction?' Thus many would hide their sinful
murmuring under God's hand with this pretense, that it is but
sensibleness of their affliction. To that I answer: 1. There is no
sense of any affliction that will hinder the sense of God's
mercies. Nay, the more we are sensible of our afflictions,
providing it is in a gracious manner, the more sensible we will be
of God's mercy. But you are so sensible of your affliction that it
takes away the sense of all your mercies. Oh, this is sinful
discontent, this is not to be sensible in a wicked way, you go
beyond your bounds. By this rule you may come to know when your
sorrows and troubles for your afflictions go beyond the
bounds.

We may be sorrowful when God
afflicts, but, oh, that I might know when my sorrow goes beyond
the bounds of it! Truly, you may know it by this, does the sense
of your afflictions take away the sense of your mercies? If it
does, then it goes beyond the bounds.

2. If it were but a bare sense of an
affliction it would not hinder you in the duties of your
condition. The right sense of our afflictions will never hinder us
in the performance of the duties of our condition; but you are so
sensible of the affliction that you are made unfit for the
performance of the duties of the condition that God has put you
in. Surely it is more than mere sense of your affliction! 3. If it
were but a mere sense of your affliction, then you could in this
your condition bless God for the mercies that others have; but
your discontentedness usually breeds envy at others. When anyone
is discontented with their condition, they have an envious spirit
at the conditions of those who are delivered from what afflictions
they bear.

Certainly, then, it has turned sour
when you are so sensible of your afflictions and insensible of
mercies that you are unfit for the duties of your condition, and
envious of others who are not afflicted as you are.

2. BUT A DISCONTENTED HEART WILL
SAY, 'I am not so much troubled with my afflictions, but it is for
my sin rather than my affliction, and I hope you will give leave
that we should be troubled and discontented with our sin. Were it
not for sin that I see in myself, I should not be so discontented
as I am. Oh! it is sin that is heavy upon me, and it is that which
troubles me more than my afflictions.

Do not deceive your own heart, there
is a very great deceit in this. There are many people who, when
God's hand is out against them, will say they are troubled for
their sin, but the truth is, it is the affliction that troubles
them rather than their sin. Their heart greatly deceives them in
this very thing.

1. They were never troubled for
their sin before this affliction came. But you will say, It is
true I was not before, for my prosperity blinded me, but now God
has opened my eyes by afflictions. Has he? Then your great care
will be rather for the removing of your sin than your affliction.
Are you more solicitous about the taking away of your sin than the
taking away of your affliction? 2. If it is your sin that troubles
you, then even if God should take away your afflictions, yet
unless your sin is taken away, and your heart is better, this
would not content you, you could not be satisfied. But we see
usually that if God removes their afflictions, they have no more
trouble for their sin. Oh, many deceive themselves in this, saying
that they are so troubled for their sin, and especially those who
are so troubled that they are in danger to miscarry, and to make
away with themselves. There is not one in ten thousand who is in
such a condition as this, and it is afflictions rather than sin
that puts them to it. Indeed, you lay everything on this, as if it
were the work of the Word, or the spirit of bondage. I remember I
heard not long since of a divine who was judicious, and used to
such things, to whom came a man mightily troubled for his sin, and
he could not tell what to do, he was ready to despair. The divine
looked upon him, and said, 'Are you not in debt?' He confessed
that he was, and at length the minister began to find out that
that was his trouble rather than his sin, and so was able to help
him in that matter, that his creditors should not come on him, and
then the man was pretty quiet, and would not do away with himself
any longer.

It is usual that if anything befalls
a man which crosses him, Oh, then, it is his sin that troubles
him! Sometimes it is so with servants, if their masters cross
them, then they are vexed and fret. Come to deal with them, Oh,
then they will say they are sorrowful for their sin. But we must
take heed of dallying with God, who is the seer and searcher of
the secrets of all heart.

Many of you go sullen and dumpish up
and down in your homes, and then you say, it is your sin that lies
upon you, when God knows it is otherwise: it is because you cannot
have your desires as you would have.

3. If you are troubled for your sin,
then it will be your great care not to sin in your trouble, so as
not, by your trouble, to increase your sin. But you are troubled
in such a way that, the truth is, you increase your sin in your
trouble, and since you said you were troubled for your sin you
have committed more sin than you did before.

4. And then, lastly, if it is your
sin that troubles you, then you have the more need to submit to
God's hand, and to accept the punishment of your iniquity, as
in

Leviticus 26:41. There is no
consideration to take away murmuring, so much as to look upon my
sin as the cause of my affliction.

3. 'OH', SAYS ANOTHER, 'I FIND MY
AFFLICTION IS SUCH THAT GOD WITHDRAWS HIMSELF FROM ME IN MY
AFFLICTION.

That is what troubles me, and can
anybody be quiet then, can anybody be satisfied with such a
condition, when the Lord withdraws himself? However great my
affliction were, yet if I found not God withdrawing himself from
me, I hope I could be content with any affliction, but I cannot
find the presence of God with me in this affliction, as at other
times I have found, and that is what troubles me, and makes me in
such a condition as I am.' Now to that I answer thus: 1. It is a
very evil thing for men and women over every affliction to
conclude that God is departed from them. It may be, when it comes
to be examined, there is no other reason why you think that God is
withdrawn and departed, but because he afflicts you. Now for you
to make such a conclusion, that every time God lays an affliction
upon you, he is departed, is a sinful disorder of your heart, and
is very dishonorable to God, and grievous to his Spirit. In
the

17th of Exodus, verse 7, you may see
how God was displeased with such a disorder as this: 'And he
called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the
chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the
Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?' Mark, they murmured
because they were brought into afflictions: but see what the text
says, 'Therefore the place was called Massah and Meribah, because
they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?' This
was tempting God. Sometimes we are afraid God is departed from us,
and it is merely because we are afflicted. I beseech you to
observe this Scripture: God calls it a tempting of him, when he
afflicts anyone, for them to conclude and say that God is departed
from them. If a child should cry out and say that his father is
turned to be an enemy to him, because he corrects him, this would
be taken ill. I beseech you consider this one place- it may be of
very great use to you-that you may not be ready to think that God
is departed, because you are afflicted.

2. If God is departed, the greatest
sign of God's departing is because you are so disturbed. You make
your disquiet the fruit of God's departing from you. If you could
only cure your disquiet, if you could but quiet your own hearts
and get them into a better frame of contentedness under God's hand
in affliction, then you would find God's presence with you. Will
you be thus disquieted till God comes again to you? Your disquiet
drives him from you, and you can never expect God's coming to
manifest himself comfortably to your souls, till you have gotten
your hearts quiet under your afflictions. Therefore you see here
how you reason amiss: you reason, I am disquiet because God is
gone, when the truth is, God is gone because you are disquiet.
Reason the other way, Oh, my disquiet has driven God from me, and
therefore ever I would have the presence of God to come again to
me, let my heart be quiet under the hand of God.

3. Do you find God departing from
you in your affliction? Will you therefore depart from God too? Is
this your help? Can you help yourself that way? Because God is
gone, will you go too? Do I, indeed, feel God departing from me?
It may be so. It may be, God for your trial is departed a little
from you. And is it so indeed? What an unwise course I take! I
commit further sin and so I go further off from God; what a plight
I am in! God goes from me, and I from God. If the child sees the
mother going from it, it is not for the child to say, My mother is
gone yonder and I will go the other way; no, but the child goes
crying after the mother. So should the soul say, I see the Lord is
withdrawing his presence from me, and now it is best for me to
make after the Lord with all my might, and I am sure this
murmuring humor is not a making after God, but by it I go further
and further away from God, and what a distance there will be
between God and me within a little while! These are some of the
reasonings and pleas of a murmuring and discontented heart. There
are many others that we shall meet with, and endeavor to speak to
your hearts in them, that this touch humor of discontent may, as
it were, be cut with the word and softened with the word, so that
it may pass away. For that is the way of physicians, when they
meet with a body which has any tough humor, then they give that
which has a piercing quality; when there is a tough humor which
stops the water, that it cannot pass, they give something with a
piercing quality which may make a passage for it. So you have need
of such things as are piercing, to make a way through this tough
humor in the spirits of men and women, whereby they come to live
very uncomfortably to themselves and others, and very dishonorably
unto God.

Now many pleas and reasonings still
remain, for there is a great deal of ado with a discontented,
murmuring heart. And I remember, I find that the same Hebrew word
which signifies to lodge, to abide, signifies to murmur. They use
one word for both, for murmuring is a disorder that lodges in men;
where it gets in once it lodges, abides and continues, and
therefore, that we may dislodge it and get it out, we will labor
to show what are the further reasonings of a discontented
heart.

4. 'I THINK I COULD BE CONTENT WITH
GOD'S HAND,' SAYS ONE, 'SO FAR AS I SEE THE HAND OF GOD IN A THING
I CAN BE CONTENT.

But when men deal so unreasonably
and unjustly with me, I do not know how to bear it. I can bear
that I should be in God's hands, but not in the hands of men. When
my friends or acquaintances deal so unrighteously with me, oh,
this goes very hard with me, so that I do not know how to bear it
from men.' For taking away this reasoning, consider: 1. Though
they are men who bring this cross on you, yet they are God's
instruments. God has a hand in it, and they can go no further than
God would have them go. This was what quieted David when Shimei
cursed him: God has a hand in it, he said, though Shimei is a
base, wicked man, yet I look beyond him to God. So, do any of your
friends deal injuriously with you, and wrongly with you? Look up
to God, and see that man but as an instrument in God's
hands.

2. If this is your trouble that men
do so wrong you, you ought rather to turn your hearts to pity
them, than to murmur or be discontented. For the truth is, if you
are wronged by other men, you have the better of it, for it is
better to bear wrong than to do wrong a great deal. If they wrong
you, you are in a better condition than they, because it is better
to bear, than to do wrong. I remember it is said of Socrates that,
as he was very patient when wrong was done to him, they asked him
how he came to be so. He said, 'If I meet a man in the street who
is a diseased man, shall I be vexed and fretted with him because
he is diseased? Those who wrong me I look upon as diseased men,
and therefore pity them.' 3. Though you meet with hard dealings
from men, yet you meet with nothing but kind, good and righteous
dealings from God. When you meet with unrighteous dealings from
them, set one against the other. And that is an answer to the
fourth plea.

5. 'OH, BUT THE AFFLICTION THAT
COMES UPON ME IS AN AFFLICTION WHICH I NEVER LOOKED
FOR.

I never thought I would meet with
such an affliction, and that is what I cannot bear. That is what
makes my heart so disturbed because it was altogether unlooked for
and unexpected.' For the answer of this: 1. It is your weakness
and folly that you did not look for it and expect it. In Acts
20:22, 23, see what St. Paul says concerning himself, 'And now,
behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the
things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost
witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide
me.' It is true, he says, I do not know the particular affliction
that may befall me, but this I know, that the Spirit of God
witnesses that bonds and afflictions shall abide me everywhere. I
look for nothing else but bonds and afflictions wheresoever I go.
So a Christian should do: he should look for afflictions
wheresoever he is, in all conditions he should look to meet with
afflictions; and therefore if any affliction should befall him,
though indeed he could not foresee the particular evil, yet he
should think, This is no more than I looked for in general.
Therefore no affliction should come unexpectedly to a
Christian.

2. A second answer I would give is
this: Is it unexpected? Then the less provision you made for it
before it came, the more careful should you be to sanctify God's
name in it, now it is come. It is in this case of afflictions as
in mercies: many times mercy comes unexpected, and that might be a
third answer to you. Set one against the other. I have many
mercies that I never looked for, as well as afflictions that I
never looked for, as well as afflictions that I never looked for;
why should not the one rejoice me as much as the other disturbs
me? As it is in mercies, when they come unexpected, the less
preparation there was in me for receiving mercy, the more need I
have to be careful now to give God the glory of the mercy, and to
sanctify God's name in the enjoyment of the mercy. Oh, so it
should be with us now: we have had mercies this summer that we
never expected, and therefore we were not prepared for them; now
we should be so much the more careful to give God the glory of
them. So when afflictions come that we did not expect, when it
seems we did not lay in for them beforehand, we had need be the
more careful to sanctify God's name in them. We should have spent
some pains before, to prepare for afflictions and we did not; then
take so much the more pains to sanctify God in this affliction
now.

6. 'OH, BUT IT IS VERY GREAT, MY
AFFLICTION IS EXCEEDING GREAT,' Says someone, 'and however you say
we must be contented, you may say so who do not feel such great
afflictions, but if you felt my affliction, which I feel, you
would think it hard to bear and be content.' To that I answer: 1.
Let is be as great an affliction as it will, it is not as great as
your sin. He has punished you less than your sins.

2. It might have been a great deal
more, you might have been in Hell. And it is, if I remember,
Bernard's saying: he said, 'It is an easier matter to be oppressed
than to perish.' You might have been in Hell, and therefore the
greatness of the thing should not make you murmur, even grant it
to be great.

3. It may be it is the greater
because your heart murmurs so. Shackles upon a man's legs, if his
legs are sore, will pain him more. If the shoulder is sore, the
burden is the greater. It is because your heart is so unsound that
your affliction is great to you.

7. BUT HOWEVER YOU MAY LESSEN MY
AFFLICTION, YET I AM SURE IT IS FAR GREATER THAN THE AFFLICTION OF
OTHERS.

1. It may be it is your discontent
that makes it greater, when indeed it is not so in
itself.

2. If it were greater than others',
why is your eye evil because the eye of God is good? Why should
you be discontented the more because God is gracious to others? 3.
If your affliction greater than others'? Then in this you have an
opportunity to honor God more than others. You should consider,
does God afflict me more than other men? God gives me an
opportunity in this to honor him in this affliction more than
other men, to exercise more grace than other men. Let me labor to
do it then.

4. If all afflictions were laid upon
a heap together-this is a notable saying of Solon, that wise
Heathen, he said-'Suppose all the afflictions that are in the
world were laid upon a heap, and every man should come and take a
proportion of those afflictions, every one equally, there is
scarce any man but would rather say, Let me have the afflictions
that I had before, or else he would be likely to come to a greater
share, a greater affliction if so be he should equally share with
all the world.' Now for you who are poor (who are not in extremity
of poverty), if all the riches in the world were laid together and
you should have an equal share, you would be poorer. But take all
afflictions and sorrows whatsoever; if all the sorrows in the
world were laid together in a heap, and you had but an equal share
of them, your portion would be rather more than it is now for the
present. And therefore do not complain that it is more than
others', and murmur because of that.

8. ANOTHER REASONING THAT MURMURING
HEARTS HAVE IS THIS: Why, they think that if the affliction were
any other than it is, then they would be more
contented.

1. You must know that we are not to
choose our own rod, that God shall beat us with.

2. It may be that if it were any
other than it is, it would not be so suitable for you as this is.
It may be, therefore, God chooses it because it is the most
contrary to you, since it is most suitable for purging out the
humor that is in you. If a patient comes to take medicine and
finds himself sick by it, will he say, 'Oh,! if it were any other
potion I could bear it?' It may be, if it were any other than it
is, it would not suit your disease; yea, if it did not work as it
does, it would not suit the disease. So when you say of an
affliction, if it were any other than it is, you could bear it, do
but answer yourself with this: It may be, if it were any other
than it is, it would not be suitable for me. It would not get
right to the sinful humor in my soul, and therefore God sees this
to be the fittest and the most suitable for me.

3. Know that this is the excellence
of grace in a Christian, to be fitted for any condition; not only
to say, if it were this or that, but if it were any.

Now if a sailor has skill he does
not say, 'If it were any other wind but this, if the wind blew in
any direction but this, I could manage my ship, I could show skill
in other directions but not in this.' Would not sailors laugh at
such a one? It would be a shame for him to say that he has skill
in any other direction but this. So it should be a shame for a
Christian to say that he has skill in any other affliction but
this. A Christian should be able to manage his ship, if the wind
blows any way; to guide his soul any way.

4. The last answer is this, Know
that the Lord has rewards and crowns for all graces, and for
honoring them in all conditions. It may be, in such a way as you
think you could honor God, God has a crown for that; and God has
another crown to set upon the heads of those who honor him in such
a way as this. He has several sorts of crowns, as I may say, in
Heaven, and those crowns he must put upon somebody's head, and
therefore he exercises you in a variety of conditions, so that you
might have the several rewards and crowns that God has to reward
and crown those who are faithful in several conditions.

9. 'OH, BUT THE CONDITION THAT GOD
HAS PUT ME IN, MAKES ME UNSERVICEABLE, AND THIS TROUBLES
ME.

It is true, if it were only an
affliction and trouble to myself, it would not be so much, but I
am put into such a condition by this affliction that I am
unserviceable, and can do God no further service. God has put me
into a mean position, and what good can I do? How burdensome is my
life to me, because I can do no service for God! This is grievous
to me.' Indeed, if it is true that this is your great grief, it is
a good sign. If you can say, as in the presence of God, 'Above all
afflictions in this world, I count to be laid aside and not to be
employed in the service of God the greatest affliction. I would
rather bear any trouble in the world if I might do more service,
than be freed from trouble and be laid aside and do little
service: can you say so? It is a good sign of grace for a man to
account afflictions as great because he can do the Lord but little
service. Few men account that an affliction at all.

But yet there may be a temptation in
this. To murmur at God's disposal, when your calling is low and
mean and you can do little service, is many times a temptation to
those who are poor, those who are servants and those who are of
weak gifts, and must work hard to provide bread for their
families. It is many times a grievous burden to them to think: The
Lord uses other men in public service and I live in an obscure
way, and to what purpose is my life? To help against this
temptation, that you may not murmur against this condition: 1. Do
but consider that though your condition is low and mean, yet you
are in the Body, you are a member of the Body, Though you are but
a mean member, the toe and the finger have their use in the body;
though it is not the eye, though it is not the head, or the heart,
yet it has its use in the body.

There is an excellent expression,
which I remember Augustine has about this: 'It is better to be the
meanest member in the body, than to be the highest and most
important member and cut off from the body; it is better to be a
little sprig in the tree joined to the root, than to be an arm cut
off from the root.' Other men who have but common gifts in the
world,* who are not members of Jesus Christ, seem indeed to have
more excellence than those who are godly, who are in a mean
condition, with mean gifts and mean callings; but they are not of
the body, they are not joined to the root, and therefore their
condition is worse. [*Common gifts as distinct from the gift
of salvation.] When a great arm of a tree is cut off it has a
great many leaves on it, and seems a great deal more glorious than
those little sprigs that are on the tree, but that little sprig is
in a better condition. Why? Because it is joined to the tree and
gets sap from the root and flourishes, but the other will wither
and die within a while. So it is with all men of the world: they
are just like great boughs cut off from the tree; though they have
excellent gifts, and have great wealth and pomp and glory in the
world, they have no union with Jesus Christ the root. But others
who live in a poor condition, a poor tradesman, a poor servant, a
poor laboring-man who labors for his family every day, such a one,
being godly, may say, 'Though I have but little for the present,
little glory, little credit, little comfort, yet I am joined to
the Body, and there I have supply and that which will feed me with
comfort, blessing and mercy to all eternity.' So all who are in a
poor condition in this world, if you are godly, just thing of
that: though you are mean yet you are in the Body, and joined to
the root. You are joined to the principle of comfort, good,
blessing and mercy, which will hold out to eternity, when thousand
thousands of glorious pompous men in the world shall wither and
perish everlastingly. Therefore do not be troubled at your mean
condition.

2. Though you have only a mean
calling in this world, and so are not regarded as a man of use in
the world, yet if you are a Christian, God has called you to a
higher calling; your general calling is a high calling, though
your particular calling is but low and mean.* [*The Puritans
taught that believers have a twofold calling: their particular
calling, which was to their daily occupation and work; and their
general calling, to be Christians.] There is a place for that
in the chapter before my text, Philippians 3:14: 'I press towards
the mark', says the Apostle, 'for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus.' So every Christian has a high calling of God
in Christ Jesus: God has called him to the highest thing to which
he has called any creature he has made. The angels in Heaven have
not a higher calling than you have. You who perhaps spend your
time in a poor business, in the meanest calling, if you are a
dung-raker, to rake channels, or to clean places of filth, or any
other thing in the world that is the meanest that can be conceived
of, your general calling as a Christian advances you higher than
any particular calling can advance any man in the world. Others,
indeed, who are called to manage the affairs of the State are in a
high calling, or ministers, they are in a high calling; but yours
in some respects is higher. A poor servant who must be scraping
all day about poor, mean things many times may have such a
temptation as this: 'Oh, what a poor condition has God put me
into! Will God have regard to such a one who is in such a poor,
low place as I am?' Oh, yes, Christ has regard to the meanest
member; as a man has as real a regard to his toe if it is in pain,
and will look after it as truly and verily as any other member, so
Christ has regard to his lowest and meanest ones.

3. You are in a high calling. Though
your outward calling is low in respect of men, yet in respect of
God you are in the same calling with the angels in Heaven, and in
some degree called to that which is higher, for the Scripture says
that the angels come to understand the mystery of the Gospel by
the Church. You who are a Christian in that general calling of
yours, you are joined with principalities and powers, and with
angels, in the greatest work that God has called any creature to,
and therefore let that comfort you in this.

4. You calling is low and mean; yet
do not be discontented with that, for you have a principle within
you (if you are a godly man or woman) of grace, which raises your
lowest actions to be higher in God's esteem, than all the brave,
glorious actions that are done in the world. The principle of
faith does it: if any man or woman goes on in obedience to God in
a way of faith in the calling in which God has set them-doing
this, I say, through a principle of faith-it raises this action,
and makes it a more glorious action than all the glorious
victories of Alexander and Caesar. All their triumphs and glorious
pomp that they had in all their conquests were not so glorious as
for you to do the lowest action out of faith. As Luther speaks of
a poor milkmaid who is a believer, and does her work in faith: he
compares that action to all the glorious actions of Caesar, and
makes it a great deal more eminent and glorious in the eyes of
God. Therefore faith raises your works which are but mean, and
raises them to be very glorious.

Yes, and the truth is, it is more
obedience to submit to God in a low calling, than to submit to him
in a higher calling; for it is sheer obedience, mere obedience,
that makes you go on in a low calling, but there may be much
self-love that makes men go on in a higher calling, for there is
riches, credit and account in the world, and rewards come in by
that, which they do not in the other. To go on quietly in a low
calling is more obedience to God.

5. Know further, in the last place,
that there is likely to be more reward.

For when the Lord comes to reward,
he does not examine what work men and women have been exercised
in, but what their faithfulness has been.

'Well done, good and faithful
servant,' said the Lord; he does not say, 'Well done, good
servant, for you have been faithful to me in public works, ruling
cities and states, and affairs in kingdoms, and therefore you
shall be rewarded.' No, but, 'Well done, good and faithful
servant.' Now you may be faithful in little as well as others are
in more, by going on and working your day's labor; when you get
but a couple of shillings to maintain your family, you may be as
faithful in this as those who rule a kingdom. God looks to a man's
faithfulness, and you may have as great a reward for your
faithfulness who are a poor servant in the kitchen all the day, as
another who sits upon the throne all day. As great a crown of
glory you may have at the day of judgment, as a king who sits upon
the throne, who has ruled for God upon his throne. Yes, your
faithfulness may be rewarded by God with as great glory as a king
who has swayed his scepter for God; because, I say, the Lord does
not so much look at the work that is done, as at the faithfulness
of our hearts in doing it. Then why should not every one of us go
on comfortably and cheerfully in our low condition, for why may
not I be faithful as well as another? It is true, I cannot come to
be as rich a man and as honorable as others; but I may be as
faithful as any other man: every one of you may reason thus with
yourselves. What hinders you who are the poorest and meanest from
being as faithful as the greatest? Yes, you may have as glorious a
crown in Heaven, and therefore go on comfortably and cheerfully in
your way.

10. THERE IS ANOTHER REASONING THAT
SOME MAY HAVE AND IT IS THIS: 'Oh, I could bear much affliction in
some other way, but this is very grievous to me, the unsettledness
of my condition. Even if my condition were low, yet if it were in
a settled way, I could be content, but it is so unconstant, and so
unsettled, that I never know what to trust to, but am tossed up
and down in the world in an unsettled condition, and this is hard
to be content with.' Now to that I answer: 1 . The Psalmist says,
'That every man in his settled estate is vanity' (Psalm 39:5).
Your Bibles have it: 'Every man at his best estate is vanity,' the
word is, 'his settled estate'. You think, if you were but settled,
then you could be content, but the truth is, man in his settled
estate is vanity.

2. Perhaps God sees it is better for
you to live in a continual dependence upon him, and not to know
what your condition shall be on the morrow, than for you to have a
more settled condition in terms of the comforts of the creature.
Do but remember what we spoke of before, that Christ does not
teach you to pray, 'Lord, give me enough to serve me for two or
three years,' but, 'This day our daily bread.' This is to teach us
that we must live upon God in a dependent condition every day for
daily bread. Here was the difference between the land of Canaan
and Egypt: the land of Canaan depended on God for the watering of
it with showers from Heaven, but Egypt had a constant way of
watering the country, that did not so much depend upon Heaven for
water, but upon the river Nile, which at some certain time
overflowed the country. Knowing that the watering of their country
depended upon the river and not upon heaven, they grew more proud.
And therefore the Scripture, to express Pharaoh's pride, brings
him in as saying: 'The river is mine': he could order the river as
he pleased, for it was his. Canaan was a country which was to
depend upon God, and though they had rain at one time, yet they
never knew whether they should have it at another time, and lived
always in dependence upon God, not knowing what should become of
them. Now God thought this to be a better land for his people than
Egypt, and this is given as one reason among others, that the Lord
looked upon it as more suitable to the state of his people, who
were to live by faith, that they should be continually depending
upon Heaven, upon himself, and not have a constant settled way in
the creature for their outward dependence. We find by experience
that when those who are godly live in the greatest dependence upon
God, and have not a settled income from the creature, they
exercise faith more, and are in a better condition for their souls
than before. Oh, many times it falls out that the worse your
outward estate is the better your soul is, and the better your
outward estate is the worse your soul is.

We read in Ezra 4:13, the objection
that the enemies had against the people of Israel's building of
the wall of the city: their writing to Artaxerxes against them
said, 'Be it known unto the king, that if this city be builded,
and the walls set up again, then will not they pay toll, tribute,
and custom, and so thou shalt endamage the revenue of the kings.'
If the wall be built, they say, then they will refuse to pay toll,
tribute and custom to the king, that is, so long as they live in
such a condition where they have dependence wholly upon the king,
and live at the king's mercy, that is, they are in no city with
walls, but the king may come upon them when he will, so long they
will pay custom to the king; but if once they come to build a
wall, and can defend themselves, and have not their dependence
upon the king as before, then they will deny paying toll, tribute
and custom. So it is thus, for all the world, between God and
men's souls: when a soul lives in mere dependence upon God, so
that sensibly he sees that God has advantage of him every moment,
Oh, then such a soul will pay toll and custom, that soul exercises
faith, and begs every day his daily bread; but if God hedges that
man about with wealth, with prosperity-perhaps an inheritance
falls to him, perhaps he has a constant office that brings in so
much yearly to him duly paid-he is not so sensible now of his
dependence upon God, and he begins now to pay less toll and custom
to God than before. God has less service from this man now than
before. God sees it better for his people to live in a dependent
condition. We are very loath in respect of God to be dependent, we
would all be independents in this way, we would be dependent upon
ourselves and have no dependence upon the Lord, but God sees it
better for us to live in a depending condition.

3. This may be your comfort: though
for outward things you are mightily unsettled, yet for the great
things of your soul and eternal welfare there you are settled.
There you have a settled way, a constant way of fetching supply:
Of his fullness we receive grace for grace. You have there an
abundance of treasure to go to, and get all that you stand in need
of. And observe that now your condition is more settled in the
Covenant of grace than it was in the Covenant of works: in the
Covenant of works God gave man a stock to trade with, but he put
it into his hand, so that he might trade, and gain or lose; but in
the Covenant of grace, God makes sure: the stock is kept in the
hand of Christ, and we must go to him for supply continually, for
Christ keeps the stock. perhaps we may trifle away something in
our trading, but God takes care that we never spend the stock. It
is as when a man's son goes bankrupt, having squandered away the
capital that he gave him before; afterwards he puts his capital
into a friend's hand, and says, 'You shall keep the stock and it
shall not be at his disposal.' So we are in a more settled
condition in respect of our eternal estate than Adam was in
innocence. Therefore let that comfort us in all our unsettled
conditions in the matters of the world.

11. BUT THERE IS STILL ANOTHER
REASONING WITH WHICH MANY MURMURING HEARTS THINK TO FEED THEIR
HUMOR. THEY SAY, 'If I never had been in a better condition then I
could bear this affliction, if God had always kept me in such a
low condition, I could be content. Oh, but there was a time when I
prospered more, and my hands were full, and therefore now it is
harder for me to be brought low, as at present.' Perhaps a man had
five or six hundred a year, but now has had nothing for a great
while: if that man had not been born to so much, or had never
prospered in any higher degree than he is now in, the affliction
would have been less. Perhaps he has some money and friends to
live on, but if he had never been in a higher condition, he would
not have accounted it so great a thing to have been without it
now.

This, many times, is our greatest
wound, that once we were in a better condition; but it is the most
unreasonable thing for us to murmur upon this ground of
any.

1. For is your eye evil because God
has been good to you heretofore? It is a bad thing for us to have
our eye evil because God is good to others, but to look upon our
condition with an evil eye now, because God was once good to
us!-has God done you any wrong because he was formerly more good
to you than he was to others? 2. Did God give you more prosperity
before? It was to prepare you for affliction. We should look at
all our outward prosperity as a preparation for afflictions. If
you had done so, then it would not have been so difficult for you
to endure afflictions now. If when you had great wealth, you made
use of the mercy of God to prepare you for your afflicted estate,
then the change of your estate would not be so grievous. Every
Christian should say: 'Have I wealth now? I should prepare for
poverty. Have I health now? I should prepare for sickness. Have I
liberty? Let me prepare myself for imprisonment. How do I know
what God may call me to? Have I comfort and peace now in my
conscience, does God shine upon me? While I have this let me
prepare for God's withdrawing from me. Am I delivered from
temptations? Let me prepare now for the time of temptations.' If
you would do so, the change of your condition would not be so
grievous to you.

Sailors who are in a calm prepare
for storms; would they say, 'If we never had calms we could bear
storms, but we have had calms so many years or weeks together,
that this is grievous? In your calm you are to prepare to storms,
and the storm will be less.

You should reason quite contrary to
what you do and say: 'Now I am in an afflicted condition, but,
blessed be God, I was in a comfortable condition, and, blessed be
God, that he was before with me in his mercy': this one
consideration may help murmuring hearts. Do you murmur because
once you were better? Know that God was before with you in mercy,
and you should rather thing thus: I have lived for these many
years, perhaps forty years or more, in a comfortable condition, I
have lived in health, and peace, and plenty; what though the
remaining part of my time should have some sorrow and affliction?
The Lord has granted to me a comfortable sunshine all the day long
towards evening, and what if at seven or eight o'clock at night it
begins to rain? Let me thank God I have had such fair weather all
day. If you are on a voyage, and you have a comfortable wind, and
very fair weather for many months together, what if you have a
little storm when you are within sight of land? Will you murmur
and repine? Oh now, but you rather bless God that you have had
such a comfortable voyage so long.

Oh, this consideration would help us
all. If God should now say, 'Well, you will never see comfortable
days again in outward things in this world', then, you have cause
to fall down and bless God's name that you have had so many
comfortable days. Now you reason quite contrary: whereas you
should bless God that you have had so much comfort, you make what
you have had before an aggravation of your afflictions now, and so
murmur and are discontented.

On what terms did you hold what God
gave you before? Did you hold it so that you have in your papers,
'To have and to hold for ever'? God gives no such thing, God gives
to no man, I say, anything but grace to run upon that tenure.
There is no such thing in all God's writings for any outward
comforts as, 'To have and to hold for you and your heirs.' Indeed,
grave he gives to yourselves, to have and to hold for ever, though
not for everyone who comes out of your loins to have and to hold
for ever; but God does not give any outward thing upon such tenure
as that. If God gives me an understanding of himself, and faith,
and humility, and love, and patience, and such graces of his
Spirit, he gives me them for ever, if he gives me himself, and his
Christ, and his promises, and his covenant, he gives me them for
ever. Who am I, therefore, that the sun should always shine upon
me, that I must have fair weather all my days? What God gives to
me, he gave it as a pledge of his love; let me return it to him as
a pledge of my obedience. There is all the reason in the world for
it: all that a godly man receives from God he receives as a pledge
of god's love to him; therefore when he comes into an afflicted
condition, God says, 'Return to me as a pledge of your obedience,
what you had from me as a pledge of my love.' We should cheerfully
come to God and bless God that we have anything to render to him
as a pledge of our obedience, and should say, 'Oh, it is your
love, O Lord, which has given us everything, which enables us to
render a pledge of our obedience to you.' When God calls for your
wealth or any comforts that you have, God calls for it as a pledge
of your obedience to him.

12. ANOTHER REASONING OF A MURMURING
HEART IS THIS: 'Oh, but after I have taken a great deal of pains
for this comfort, yet then I am thwarted in it. To be thwarted now
after all the labor and pains I have taken, oh, this goes very
hard.' I answer: 1 . The greater the cross, the more obedience and
submission.

2. When you took a great deal of
pains, was it not with submission to God? Did you take pains, with
resolutions that you must have such a thing when you labored for
it? Then know that you did not labor as a Christian, but if you
labored and took pains, was it not with resignation to God?:
'Lord, I am taking pains in my calling, but with submission; I
depend wholly upon you for success and a blessing.' And what did
you aim at in your labor? Was it not that you might walk with God
in the place where God had set you? A Christian should do so in
his outward calling: I am diligent in my outward calling, but it
is so that I might obey God in it. It is true, I do it that I
might provide for my family, but the chief thing that I aim at is
that I might yield obedience to God in the way where God has set
me.

Now if God calls you to another
condition, to obey him in, though it is by suffering, you will do
it if your heart is right.

3. There will be more testimony of
your love to God, if so be that you now yield up yourself to God
in what cost you dear. 'Shall I offer that to God', said David,
'that cost me nothing?' Your outward comforts have cost you much,
and you have taken great pains to obtain them and now, if you can
submit to God in the want of them, in this, I say, your love is
the more shown, that you can offer to God what cost you
dear.

13. NOW THESE ARE THE PRINCIPAL
REASONINGS OF A DISCONTENTED HEART. BUT THERE IS ONE PLEA MORE
THAT MAY BE NAMED: SOME SAY, 'Though I confess that my affliction
is somewhat hard, and I feel some trouble within me, yet I thank
God I do not break out in discontented ways to the dishonor of
God; I keep it in, although I have much ado with my own heart.'
Oh, do not satisfy yourselves with that, for the disorders of your
hearts, and their sinful workings are as words before God. 'My
soul, be silent to God': we spoke of that in the beginning of the
expounding of this Scripture. It is not enough for your tongue to
be silent; but your soul must be silent. There may be a sullen
discontentedness of heart as well as a discontentedness manifested
in words, and if you do not mortify that inward sullenness, when
you are afflicted a little more, it will break forth at
last.

And thus the Lord, I hope, has met
with the chief reasonings and please for our discontent in our
conditions. I beseech you, in the name of God, consider these
things, and because they concern your own hearts, you may so much
the better remember them. I had thought to have made a little
beginning to the next head, which is, Some way of helping you to
this grace of contentment. It is a most excellent grace, of
admirable use, as you have heard, and the contrary is very sinful
and vile.

8. HOW TO ATTAIN CONTENTMENT Now we
are coming to the close of this point of contentment which Jesus
Christ teaches those who are in his school. We have opened the
point to you, and showed you wherein the art, and skill, and
mystery of Christian contentment lies, and many things in the way
of application, rebuking the want of it. In the last chapter, I
finished that point of showing the various reasonings of a
murmuring and discontented heart. I shall now, being desirous to
make an end, leave what was said, and proceed to what remains.
There are only these two things, for working your hearts to this
grace of Christian contentment: 1 . TO PROPOUND SEVERAL
CONSIDERATIONS FOR CONTENTING THE HEART IN ANY AFFLICTED
CONDITION.

2 . TO PROPOUND DIRECTIONS, WHAT
SHOULD BE DONE FOR WORKING OUR HEARTS TO THIS.

1. CONSIDERATIONS TO CONTENT THE
HEART IN ANY AFFLICTED CONDITION.

1. We should consider, in all our
wants and inclinations to discontent, the greatness of the mercies
that we have, and the meanness of the things we lack. The things
we lack, if we are godly, are things of very small moment in
comparison to the things we have, and the things we have are
things of very great moment. For the most part, the things for the
want of which people are discontented and murmur are such things
as reprobates have, or may have. Why should you be troubled so
much for the want of something which a man or woman may have and
yet be a reprobate? as, that your wealth is not so great, your
health not so perfect, your credit not so much; you may have all
those things and still be a reprobate! Now will you be
discontented for what a reprobate may have? I will give you the
example of a couple of godly men, meeting together, Anthony and
Didymus: Didymus was blind, and yet a man of very excellent gifts
and graces: Anthony asked him if he was not troubled at his want
of sight. He confessed he was, 'But', he said, 'should you be
troubled at the want of what flies and dogs have, and not rather
rejoice and be thankful that you have what angels have?' God has
given you those good things that make angels glorious; is not that
enough for you, though you lack what a fly has? And so a Christian
should reason the case with himself: what am I discontented for? I
am discontented for want of what a dog may have, what a devil may
have, what a reprobate may have; shall I be discontented for not
having that, when God has given me what makes angels glorious?
'Blessed be God,' says the Apostle in Ephesians 1:3, 'who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.' It
may be you have not such great blessings in earthly places as some
others have, but if the Lord has blessed you in heavenly places,
that should content you. There are blessings in heaven, and he has
set you here for the present, as it were in heaven, in a heavenly
place. The consideration of the greatness of the mercies that we
have, and the littleness of the things that God has denied us, is
a very powerful consideration to work this grace of
contentment.

2. The consideration that God is
beforehand with us with his mercies should content us. I spoke of
this as an aggravation of our discontent, but now I shall use it
as a consideration to help us to contentment. You lack many
comforts now, but has not God been beforehand with you heretofore?
Oh, you have had mercy enough already to make you spend all the
strength you have and time you shall live, to bless God for what
you have had already. I remember reading of a good man who had
lived to fifty years of age and enjoyed his health for eight and
forty years exceedingly well, and lived in prosperity, but the
last two years his body was exceedingly diseased, he had the
strangury, and was in great pain. But he reasoned the case with
himself thus: 'Oh, Lord, you might have made all my life a life of
torment and pain, but you have left me have eight and forty years
in health. I will praise your mercies for what I have had, and
will praise your justice for what now I feel.' Oh, it is a good
consideration for us, to think that God is beforehand with us, in
the way of mercy. Suppose God should now take away your wealth
from some of you who have lived comfortably a great while; you
will say, 'That aggravates our misery, that we have had wealth.'
But it is through your unthankfulness that it does so.

We should bless God for what we have
had, and not think that we are worse because we have had thus and
thus. We might always have been miserable who has no other great
aggravation of his misery, but that once he was happy. If there is
nothing else to make you miserable, then that is no aggravation
that you may not bear, for there is much mercy in that you had it
once. Therefore let that content you.

3. The consideration of the
abundance of mercies that God bestows and we enjoy. It is a saying
of Luther: 'The sea of God's mercies should swallow up all our
particular afflictions.' Name any affliction that is upon you:
there is a sea of mercy to swallow I up. If you pour a pailful of
water on the floor of your house, it make a great show, but if you
throw it into the sea, there is no sign of it. So, afflictions
considered in themselves, we think are very great, but let them be
considered with the sea of god's mercies we enjoy, and then they
are not so much, they are nothing in comparison.

4. Consider the way of God towards
all creatures. God carries on all creatures in a vicissitude of
several conditions: thus, we do not always have summer, but winter
succeeds summer; we do not always have day, but day and night; we
do not always have fair weather, but fair and foul; the vegetative
creatures do not always flourish, but the sap is in the root and
they seem to be dead. There is a vicissitude of all things in the
world: the sun does not shine always on us here, but darkness
comes after light. Now seeing God has so ordered things with all
creatures, that there is a mixture of conditions, why should be
thing it much that there should be a vicissitude of conditions
with us, sometimes in a way of prosperity, and sometimes in a way
of affliction? 5. The creatures suffer for us; why should not we
be willing to suffer, to be serviceable to God? God subjects other
creatures, they are fain to lose their lives for us, to lose
whatever beauty and excellence they have, to be serviceable to us;
why should not we be willing to part with anything in service for
God? Certainly, there is not as great a distance between other
creatures and mankind, as there is between mankind and God. This
is an expression of the martyr, Master Hooper, which we read of in
the Book of Martyrs: in laboring to work his own heart, and the
hearts of others to contentedness in the midst of his sufferings,
he has this comparison, and you may be put in mind of it every
day: he said, 'I look upon the creature and see what it suffers to
be useful to me. Thus, the brute beasts must die, must be roasted
in the fire, and boiled, must come on to the plate, be hacked all
in pieces, must be chewed in the mouth, and in the stomach turned
to that which is loathsome, if one should behold it; and all to
nourish me, to be useful to my body, and shall not I be willing to
be made anything for God, for his service? What an abundance of
alterations the creature undergoes to be made useful to me, to
preserve me! Then, if God will do so with me for his use, as he
subjects the creatures to me for my use, why should I not reset
contented? If God will take away my wealth, and make me poor, if
God will take away life, hack me to pieces, put me in
prison-whatever he does, yet I shall not suffer more for God than
the creature does for me. And surely I am infinitely more bound to
God than the creature is to me, and there is not so much distance
between me and the creature, as between me and God!' Such
considerations as these wrought the heart of that martyr to
contentedness in his sufferings. And every time the creature is
upon your plates you may think, What! does God make the creature
suffer for my use, not only for my nourishment, but for my
delight? what am I, then, in respect of the infinite God? 6.
Consider that we have but a little time in this world. If you are
godly you will never suffer except in this world. Why, do but shut
your eyes and soon another life is come, as that martyr said to
his fellow martyr, 'Do but shut your eyes', he said, 'and the next
time they are opened you shall be in another world.' When he was
banished, Athanasius said, 'It is but a little cloud and it will
be over, notwithstanding, soon.' These afflictions are but for a
moment. When a sailor is at sea he does not think it much if a
storm arises, especially if he can see the Heavens clear beyond
it; he says, 'It will be over soon.' Consider, we have not long to
live, it may be over before our days are at an end. But supposing
it should not, death will put an end to all, all afflictions and
troubles will soon be at an end by death.

7. Consider the condition that
others have been in, who have been our betters. We made some use
of this before to show the evil of discontent.

But, further, it is a mighty
argument to work on our hearts a contentedness in any condition.
You many times consider who are above you; but consider who are
under you.

Jacob, who was the heir of both
Abraham and Isaac, for the blessing was on him and the promise ran
in him, yet was in a poor, mean condition.

Abraham, his grandfather, was able
to make a kind of army of his own household, three hundred, to
fight with a king, yet Jacob his grandchild goes over Jordan with
a staff, and lives in a very poor and mean condition for a long
time. Moses might have had all the treasure in Egypt, and some
historians say of him, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him for her son,
because Pharaoh had no heir for the crown, and so he was likely to
have come to the crown. Yet what a low condition he lived in, when
he went to live with Jethro his father-in-law forty years on end!
Afterwards when he returned to Egypt, with his wife and children,
and all that he had, he had only one beast to carry him; he went
back to Egypt from his father-in-law in a mean
condition.

And we know how Elijah was fed with
ravens, and how he had to shift for his life from time to time,
and run into the wilderness up and down; and so did Elisha: he was
many times in a low condition; the prophets of God were hid in a
cave by Obadiah, and there fed with bread and water; and the
prophet Jeremiah put into a dungeon, and oh, how he was used! And
it would be endless to name the particulars of the great
sufferings of the people of God.

In former time, we have sometimes
made use of this argument in other ways: the great instruments of
God in the first Reformation lived in great straits, in a very low
condition. Even Luther himself, when he was about to die, though
he was a man of such public use, and was a great man in the courts
of princes, said, 'Lord, I have neither house nor lands, nor
estate, to leave anything to wife or children, but I commit them
to thee.' And so Musculus who was a very choice instrument of God
in his time, though he was a man who was worth even a kingdom for
the excellence of his spirit, and learning, for he was one of the
most learned men of his time, yet sometimes was forced to dig in
the common ditch to get bread for his family. What would we do, if
we were in such a condition as these men were? But, above all, set
Christ before us, who professes that the birds of the air had
nests, and the foxes had holes, yet the Son of man had no place to
hide his head, such a low condition was he in. The consideration
of such things as these is very useful. It is likewise useful for
men and women of wealth to go to poor people's houses and see how
they live, to go to hospitals, and to see the wounds of soldiers
and others, and to see the lamentable condition that people live
in who live in some alms-houses, and what poor fare they have, and
what straits they are put to. You hear sometimes of them, but if
you went to see them it would not only stir up charity in
yourselves towards them, but stir up thankfulness in your hearts
towards God, it would be a special means to help you against any
discontent. You would go away and see cause to bless God and say,
'If I were in such a condition as they are in what should I do?
How could I bear it? And yet what reason is there that God so
orders and disposes of things that they should be so low in their
conditions and I so high? I know no reason but free grace: God
will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy.' These are good
considerations for the furtherance of contentment.

8. Before your conversion, before
God wrought upon your souls, you were contented with the world
without grace, though you had no interest in God nor Christ; why
cannot you now be contented with grace and spiritual things
without the world? If you yourselves were content with the world
without grace, there is reason you should be content with grace
without the world. Certainly there is infinitely more reason. You
see that many men of the world have a kind of contentment; they do
not murmur or repine with the world, though they have no interest
in God and Christ. Then cannot you have as much contentment with
God and Christ, without the world, as they can, with the world,
without God and Christ? It is an infinite shame that this should
be so.

9. Yea, consider, when God has given
you such contentments you have not given him the glory. When God
has let you have your heart's desire, what have you done with your
heart's desire? You have not been any the better for it; it may be
you have been worse many times. Therefore let that satisfy you-I
meet with crosses, but when I had contentment and all things
coming in, God got but little or no glory from me, and therefore
let that be a means now to quiet me in my discontented
thoughts.

10. Finally, consider all the
experience that you have had of God's doing good to you in the
want of many comforts. When God crosses you, have you never had
experience of abundance of good in afflictions? It is true, when
ministers only tell men that God will work good out of their
afflictions, they hear them speak, and think they speak like good
men, but they feel little or no good; they feel nothing but pain.
But when we cannot only say to you that God has said he will work
good out of your afflictions, but we can say to you, that you
yourselves have found it so by experience, that God has made
former afflictions to be great benefits to you, and that you would
not have been without them, or without the good that came by them
for a world, such experiences will exceedingly quiet the heart and
bring it to contentment. Therefore think thus with yourself: Lord,
why may not this affliction work as great a good upon me as
afflictions have done before? Perhaps you may find many other
considerations, besides, in your own meditations; these are the
principal ones that I have thought of.

I will add only one word to this, of
one who once was a great merchant and trader-his name was Zeno-and
it happened once that he suffered shipwreck, and he said, 'I never
made a better voyage and sailed better than at the time that I
suffered shipwreck.' Now this was a strange saying that he had
never made a better voyage! It would be a strange paradox to you
who are seamen, to say that it is a good voyage, when you suffer
shipwreck.

But he meant because he got so much
good by it; God was pleased to bless it so far to him that he
gained much to his soul by it, so much soul-riches that he made
account that it was the best voyage that ever he had. Truly,
sometimes it is so, yes, to you who are godly; I make no question
but you find it so, that your worst voyages have proved your best.
When you have met with the greatest crosses in a voyage, God has
been pleased to turn them to a greater good to you, in some other
way. It is true, we may desire crosses that they may be turned to
other advantages; but when God in his providence so orders things,
that you meet with bad voyages, you may expect that God will turn
them to a greater good, and I do not doubt but that those who have
been exercised in the ways of godliness any long time have
abundant experiences, which they have gained by them.

You know sometimes it is better to
be in a little ship, for they have an advantage over greater ones
in storms many times: in a storm a little ship can thrust into a
shallow place and so be safe, but your great ships cannot, they
must be abroad and tossed up and down in the storm and tempest,
and so many times split against the rocks. And so, it may be, God
sees there is a storm coming, and if you are in your great ship
you may be split upon rocks and lands. God, therefore, puts you
into a smaller vessel that you may be more safe. We will lay aside
speaking of those considerations now, but I would not have you lay
them aside, and put them out of your thoughts, but labor (those
especially that most concern you) to make use of them in a needful
time, when you find any discontentedness of spirit arising in
you.

The main thing that I intend by way
of appliance, is to propound directions, what to do for helping
our hearts to contentment. For, as for any further considerations,
we have already spoken largely of them, because we have opened
most things in showing what the lessons are that Christ teaches
men, when he brings them into his school, to teach them this art.
I say, we have spoken there of the special things that are most
considerable for helping us to this grace of contentment.
Therefore, now, all that I shall further do about this point, will
be the giving of some directions, what course to take that we may
come to attain this grace of contentment.

1. All the rules and helps in the
world will do us little good unless we get a good temper within
our hearts. You can never make a ship go steady, by propping it
outside; you know there must be ballast within the ship, to make
it go steady. And so, there is nothing outside us that can keep
our hearts in a steady, constant way, but what is within us: grace
is within the soul, and it will do this.

2. If you would get a contented
life, do not grasp too much of the world, do not take in more of
the business of the world than God calls you to. Do not be greedy
of taking in a great deal of the world, for if a man goes among
thorns, when he may take a simpler way, he has no reason to
complain that he is pricked with them. You go among thorns-is it
your way? Must you of necessity go among them? Then it I another
matter. But if you voluntarily choose that way, when you may go
another, then you have no cause to complain. If men and women will
thrust themselves on things of the world which they do not need,
then o wonder that they are pricked and meet with what disturbs
them. For such is the nature of all things here in this world,
that everything has some prick or other in it. We will meet with
disappointments and discontentments in everything we meddle with,
and therefore those who have least to do in the world, that is,
unless God calls them to it (we must put in that), are likely to
meet with many things that will dissatisfy them.

3. Be sure of your call to every
business you go about. Though it is the least business, be sure of
your call to it; then, whatever you meet with, you may quiet your
heart with this: I know I am where God would have me.

Nothing in the world will quiet the
heart so much as this: when I meet with any cross, I know I am
where God would have me, in my place and calling; I am about the
work that God has set me. Oh, this will quiet and content you when
you meet with trouble. What God calls a man to, in that he may
have comfort whatever befalls him. God will look to you, and see
you blessed if you are in the work God calls you to.

4. What has just been said is
especially true if I add: That I walk by rule in the work that I
am called to. I am called to such a business, but I must manage
this work that I am called to by rule. I must walk by the Word,
order myself in this business according to God's mind as far as I
am able.

Now add this to the other, and then
the quiet and peace of the soul may be made even perfect in a way.
When I know that I have not put myself on the work, but God has
called me to it, and I walk by the rule of the Word in it, then,
whatever may come, God will take care of me there. It was a saying
of a heathen: 'If you will subject all things to yourself, subject
yourself to reason and by that you will make all things to be
under you.' I may add a little more to it: if you will subject all
things under you, subject yourself to God, and then, the truth is,
all things are under you.

It has been as many times we have
hinted: the reason why many of our gentry have been so malignant
among us is, because they are willing to be slaves themselves
under some above them at Court, so that they may keep their
neighbors under, to be slaves to them, for, you know, any man
before who was great at Court, could crush any countryman with
whom he was angry. If there were an arbitrary government, then all
those who would be willing to be vassals and slaves to the Prince
could make all others vassals and slaves under them. Now be
willing to be a vassal to God, to be absolutely under God's
command, and then, I say, all things in the world are under you.
'All things are yours,' says the Apostle, 'life and death, every
thing is yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' All
things in the world are serviceable to that man or woman who is
serviceable to God. It is a mighty commendation of God's service:
be willing to be serviceable to God yourself and God makes all
things in the world your servants, for so they are. You will say,
'How are they my servants? I cannot command them.' They are
servants in this, that God orders them all to work for your good.
There is nothing the world but, says God, it shall work for your
good, and be serviceable to you, if you will be serviceable to
me.' Who would not be now God's servant? Subject yourself to God,
and all things shall be subjected to you.

So long as we keep within our
bounds, we are under protection, but if once we break our bounds,
we must expect it to be with us as it is with the deer in the
park: while the deer keep within the pale, no dogs come after
them, and they can feed quietly, but let the deer get outside the
pale, and then every dog in the country will be hunting after
them. So it is with men: let men and women keep within the bounds
of the command of God, of the rule that God has set them in his
Word, and then they are protected by God, and they may go about
their business in peace, and never be troubled for anything, but
cast all their care upon God. God provides for them. But if they
go beyond the pale, if they pass their bounds, then they may
expect to meet with troubles, and afflictions, and discontent. And
therefore that is a fourth direction: walk by rule.

5. Exercise much faith; that is the
way for contentedness. After you have done with all the
considerations that reason may suggest to you, if you find that
these do not do it, Oh, then, call for the grace of faith. A man
may go very far with the use of reason alone to help him to
contentment, but when reason is at a nonplus, then set faith at
work. It was a saying of the reverend divine, Master Perkins, whom
God made so useful in his time: 'The life of faith', he said, 'is
a true life, indeed the only life.' Exercise faith, not only in
the promise that all shall work together for good to them that
fear God, but likewise exercise faith in God himself; as well as
in his Word, in the attributes of God. It was a saying of
Socrates, a heathen: 'Since God is so careful for you, what need
you be careful for any thing yourselves?'-it was a strange saying
for a heathen.

Oh, Christian, if you have any
faith, in the time of extremity think thus: this is the time that
God calls for the exercise of faith. What can you do with your
faith, if you cannot quiet your heart in discontent. There was a
saying of one Dionysius, who had been a king, and afterwards was
brought to such a low condition as to get his living by being a
schoolmaster: someone comes and asks him, 'What have you got by
your philosophy from Plato and others?' 'What have I got,' he
says, 'I have got this, that though my condition is changed from
so high a condition to low, yet I can be content.' So what do you
get by being a believer, a Christian? What can you do by your
faith? I can do this: I can in all states cast my care upon God,
cast my burden upon God, I can commit my way to God in peace:
faith can do this.

Therefore, when reason can go no
higher, let faith get on the shoulders of reason and say, 'I see
land though reason cannot see it, I see good that will come out of
all this evil.' Exercise faith by often resigning yourself to God,
by giving yourself up to God and his ways. The more you in a
believing way surrender up yourself to God, the more quiet and
peace you will have.

6. Labor to be spiritually minded.
That is, be often in meditation of the things that are above. 'If
we be risen with Christ,' say the Scriptures, 'let us seek the
things that are above, where Christ is, that sits at the right
hand of God.' Be much in spiritual thoughts, in conversing with
things above.

Many Christians who have an interest
in the things of Heaven converse but very little with them; their
meditations are not much upon heavenly things.

Some give this as the reason why
Adam did not see his nakedness, they think that he had so much
converse with God and with things above sense, that he did not so
much mind or think of what nakedness was. Whether that were so or
not I will not say, but this I say, and am certain of, the reason
why we are so troubled with our nakedness, with any wants that we
have, is because we converse so little with God, so little with
spiritual things; conversing with spiritual things would lift us
above the things of the world.

Those who are bitten or struck by a
snake, it is because they tread on the ground; if they could be
lifted up above the earth they need never fear being stung by the
snakes which are crawling underneath. So I may compare the sinful
distemper of murmuring, and the temptations and evils that come
from that, to snakes that crawl up and down below; but if we could
get higher we should not be stung by them. A heavenly conversation
is the way to contentment.

7. Do not promise yourselves too
much beforehand; do not reckon on too great things. It is good for
us to take hold very low, and not think to pitch too high. Do not
soar too high in your thoughts beforehand, to think, Oh, if I had
this and this, and imagine great matters to yourselves; but be as
good Jacob: you know he was a man who lived a very contented life
in a mean condition, and he said, 'Lord, if I may but have clothes
to put on, and meat to eat.' He looked no higher, he was content
with that. So if we would not pitch our thoughts high, and think
that we might have what others have, so much and so much, we would
not be troubled so much when we meet with disappointments. So Paul
says, 'If we have but meat and drink and clothing, let us
therewith be content.' He did not soar too high aloft. Those who
look at high things in the world meet with disappointments, and so
they come to be discontented. Be as high as you will in spiritual
meditations; God gives liberty there to any one of you to be as
high as you will, above angels. But, for your outward estate, God
would not have you aim at high things; 'Seekest thou great
things?' said the Lord to Baruch, 'seek them not' (

Jeremiah 45:5), you shall have your
life for a prey. In these times especially, it would be a very
great evil for anyone to aim at great things; seek them not, be
willing to take hold low, and to creep low, and if God raises you,
you will have cause to bless him, but if you should not be raised,
there would not be much trouble. One who creeps low cannot fall
far, but it is those who are on high whose fall bruises them most.
That is a good rule: do not promise yourselves great things,
neither aim at any great things in the world.

8. Labor to get your hearts
mortified to the world, dead to the world. We must not content
ourselves that we have gotten some reasoning about the vanity of
the creature, and such things as these, but we must exercise
mortification, and be crucified to the world. Paul said, 'I die
daily', we should die daily to the world. We are baptized into the
death of Christ, that is to signify that we have taken such a
profession as to profess to be even as dead men to the world. Now
no crosses that fall out in the world trouble those who are dead;
if our hearts were dead to the world we should not be much
troubled with the changes of the world, nor the tossings about of
worldly things. It is very noteworthy in those soldiers who came
to break the bones of Christ, that they broke the legs of one who
was crucified with him, and of the other, but when they came to
Christ, they found he was dead, and so they did not break his
legs; there was a providence in it, to fulfill a prophecy, but
because they found he was dead, they did not break his bones. Let
afflictions and troubles find you with a mortified heart to the
world, and they will not break your bones; those whose bones are
broken by crosses and afflictions are those who are alive to the
world, but are not dead to the world. But no afflictions or
troubles will break the bones of one who has a mortified heart and
is dead to the world; that is, they will not be very grievous or
painful to such a one as is mortified to the world. This, I fear,
is a mystery and riddle to many, for one to be dead to the world,
to be mortified to the world. Now it is not my work to open to you
what mortification is, or death to the world is, but only what it
is to have our hearts so taken off from the things of the world,
as that we use them as if we used them not, not accounting that
our lives, our comforts, our happiness consist in these things.
The things in which our happiness consists are of a different
kind, and we may be happy with out these: this is a kind of
deadness to the world.

9. Let not men and women pore too
much upon their afflictions: that is, busy their thoughts too much
to look down into their afflictions. You find many people, all of
whose thoughts are taken up about what their crosses and
afflictions are, they are altogether thinking and speaking of
them. it is just with them as with a child who has a sore: his
finger is always on the sore; so men's and women's thoughts are
always on their afflictions. When they awake in the night their
thoughts are on their afflictions, and when they converse with
others-it may be even when they are praying to God-they are
thinking of their afflictions. Oh, no marvel that you live a
discontented life, if your thoughts are always poring over such
things. You should rather labor to have your thoughts on those
things that may comfort you. There are many who, if you propound
any rule to them to do them good, will take it well while they are
with you, and thank you for it, but when they are gone they soon
forget it. It is very noteworthy of Jacob, that when his wife died
in child-birth, she called the child Ben-oni, that is, a son of
sorrows; but Jacob thought with himself, If I should call this
child Ben-oni, every time that I name him it will put me in mind
of the death of my dear wife, and of that affliction, and that
will be a continued affliction to me, therefore I will not have my
child have that name, and so the text says that Jacob called his
name Benjamin, the son of my right hand. Now this is to show us
thus much, that when afflictions befall us we should not give way
to having our thoughts continually upon them, but rather upon
those things that may stir up our thankfulness to God for
mercies.

There is a comparison made by Basil,
a learned man: It is in this case as with men and women who have
sore eyes: now it is not good for them to be always looking into
the fire, or at the beams of the sun. 'No', he says, 'one who has
sore eyes must get things that are suitable to him, and such
objects as are fit for one with such weak eyes.' Therefore they
get green colors, as being a more easy color and better for weak
eyes, and they hang green sarsenet before their eyes because it is
more suitable to them. It is the very same with weak spirits. A
man or woman who has a weak spirit must not be looking into the
fire of their afflictions, upon those things that deject, that
cast them down, but they ought to be looking rather on that which
may be suitable for healing and helping them; they should consider
those things rather than the other. It will be of very great use
and benefit to you, if you lay it to heart, not to be poring
always on afflictions, but on mercies.

10. I beseech you to observe this,
though you should forget many of the others: Make a good
interpretation of God's ways towards you. If any good
interpretation can be made of God's ways towards you, make it. You
think it much if you have a friend who always makes bad
interpretations of your ways towards him; you would take that
badly. If you should converse with people with whom you cannot
speak a word, but they are ready to make a bad interpretation of
it, and to take it in an ill sense, you would think their company
very tedious to you. It is very tedious to the Spirit of God when
we make such bad interpretations of his ways towards us. When God
deals with us otherwise than we would have him do, if one sense
worse than another can be put upon it, we will be sure to do it.
Thus, when an affliction befalls you, many good senses may be made
of God's works towards you. You should think thus: it may be, God
intends only to try me by this, it may be, God saw my heart was
too much set on the creature, and so he intends to show me what is
in my heart, it may be, that God saw that if my wealth did
continue, I should fall into sin, that the better my position were
the worse my soul would be, it may be, God intended only to
exercise some grace, it may be, God intends to prepare me for some
great work which he has for me: thus you should reason.

But we, on the contrary, make bad
interpretations of God's thus dealing with us, and say, God does
not mean this; surely, the Lord means by this to manifest his
wrath and displeasure against me, and this is but a furtherance of
further evils that he intends toward me! Just as they did in the
wilderness: 'God hath brought us hither to slay us.' This is the
worst interpretation that you can possibly make of God's ways; oh,
why will you make these worst interpretations, when there may be
better? In

1 Corinthians 13:5, when the
Scripture speaks of love, it says, 'Love thinketh no evil.' Love
is of that nature that if ten interpretations may be made of a
thing, nine of them bad and one good, love will take that which is
good and leave the other nine. And so, though ten interpretations
might be presented to you concerning God's way towards you, and if
but one is good and nine bad, you should take that one which is
good, and leave the other nine.

I beseech you to consider that God
does not deal by you as you deal with him. Should God make the
worst interpretation of all your ways towards him, as you do of
his towards you, it would be very ill with you. God is pleased to
manifest his love thus to us, to make the best interpretations of
what we do, and therefore God puts a sense upon the action of his
people that one would think could hardly be. For example, God is
pleased to call those perfect who have any uprightness of heart in
them, he accounteth them perfect: 'Be ye perfect as your heavenly
Father is perfect'; uprightness in God's sense is perfection. Now,
alas, when we look into our own hearts we can scarce see any good
at all there, and yet God is pleased to make such an
interpretation as to say, It is perfect. When we look into our own
hearts, we can see nothing but uncleanness; God calls you his
saints, he calls the meanest Christian who has the least grace
under the greatest corruption his saint. You say we cannot be
saint here, but yet I God's esteem we are saints. You know the
usual title the Holy Ghost gives, in several of the Epistles, to
those who had any grace, any uprightness, is, to the saints in
such a place; you see what an interpretation God puts upon them,
they are saints to him. And so I might name in many other
particulars, how God makes the best interpretation of things; if
there is an abundance of evil and a little good, God rather passes
by the evil and takes notice of the good.

I have sometimes made use of a very
notable place in Peter, concerning Sarah: Sarah had a speech to
her husband in Genesis 18:12, she called her husband lord. There
was only that one good word in a bad, unbelieving speech; but yet
when the Apostle mentions that speech in

1 Peter 3:6, the Holy Ghost leaves
all the bad, and commends her for calling her husband 'lord', for
putting a reverent title upon her husband. Thus how graciously God
deals with us! If there is but one good word among a great many
ill, what an interpretation God makes! So should we do, if there
is only one good interpretation that we can make of a thing we
should rather make use of the good one than the bad. Oh, my
brethren (I would I could now speak only to such as are godly),
retain good thoughts of God, take heed of judging God to be a hard
master, make good interpretations of his ways, and that is a
special means to help you to contentment in all one's
course.

11. Do not so much regard the
fancies of other men, as what indeed you feel yourselves. For the
reason of our discontentment many times is rather from the fancies
of other men than from what we find we lack ourselves.

We think poverty to be such a great
evil-Why? because it is so esteemed by others, rather then that
people feel it so themselves, unless they are in an extremity of
poverty. I will give you a clear demonstration that almost all the
discontent in the world is rather from the fancies of others than
from the evil that is on themselves. You may think your wealth to
be small and you are thereupon discontented, and it is a grievous
affliction to you; but if all men in the world were poorer than
you, then you would not be discontented, then you would rejoice in
your estates though you had not a penny more than you have. Take a
man who can get but his twelve pence a day, and you will say, This
is but a poor thing to maintain a family. But suppose there were
no man in the world that had more than this, yea, that all other
men but yourselves had somewhat less wages than you, then you
would think your condition pretty good. You would have no more
then than you have now; therefore it appears by this that it is
rather from the fancies of other men than what you feel that makes
you think your condition to be so grievous, for if all the men in
the world looked upon you as happy, more happy than themselves,
then you would be contented. Oh, do not let your happiness depend
upon the fancies of other men. There is a saying of Chrysostom I
remember in this very case: 'Let us not make the people in this
case to be our lords; as we must not make men to be the lords of
our faith, so not the lords of our comforts.' That is, our comfort
should not depend more upon their imaginations, than upon what we
feel in ourselves.

It may be, others think you to be in
an afflicted condition, yea, but I thank God, for myself I do not
so apprehend it. Were it not for the disgrace, disregard and
slightings of other men, my condition would not be so bad to me as
it is now. This is what makes my condition afflictive.

12. Be not inordinately taken up
with the comforts of this world when you have them. When you have
them, do not take too much satisfaction in them.

It is a certain rule: however
inordinate any man or woman is in sorrow when a comfort is taken
from them, so were they immoderate in their rejoicing in the
comfort when they had it. For instance, God takes away a child and
you are inordinately sorrowful, beyond what God allows in a
natural or Christian way; now though I never knew before how your
heart was towards the child, yet when I see this, though you are a
mere stranger to me, I may without breach of charity conclude that
your heart was immoderately set upon your child or husband, or
upon any other comfort that I see you grieving for when God has
taken it away. If you hear ill tidings about your estates, and
your hearts are dejected immoderately, and you are in a
discontented mood because of such and such a cross, certainly your
hearts were immoderately set upon the world. So, likewise, for
your reputation, if you hear others report this or that ill of
you, and you hearts are dejected because you think you suffer in
your name, your hearts were inordinately set upon your name and
reputation. Now, therefore, the way for you not to be immoderate
in your sorrow for afflictions is not to be immoderate in your
love and delights when you have prosperity.

These are the principal directions
for our help, that we may live quiet and contented
lives.

My brethren, to conclude this point,
if I were to tell you that I could show you a way never to be in
want of anything, I do not doubt but then we should have much
flocking to such a sermon, when a man should undertake to manifest
to people how they should never be in want any more. But what I
have been preaching to you now comes to as much. It countervails
this, and is in effect all one. Is it not almost all one, never to
be in want, or never to be without contentment? That man or woman
who is never without a contented spirit, truly can never be said
to want much. Oh, the Word holds forth a way full of comfort and
peace to the people of God even in this world. You may live happy
lives in the midst of all the storms and tempests in the world.
There is an ark that you may come into, and no men in the world
may live such comfortable, cheerful and contented lives as the
saints of God. Oh, that we had learned this lesson.

I have spent many sermons over this
lesson of contentment, but I am afraid that you will be longer in
learning it than I have been preaching of it; it is a harder thing
to learn it than it is to preach or speak of it. I remember I have
read of one man reading of that place in the

39th Psalm, 'I will take heed that I
offend not with my tongue'; he said, I have been these
thirty-eight years learning this lesson and have not learned it
thoroughly. The truth is, there are many, I am afraid, who have
been professors near eight and thirty years, who have hardly
learned this lesson. It would be a good lesson, for young
professors to begin to learn this early. But this lesson of
Christian contentment is as hard, and perhaps you may be many
years learning it. I am afraid there are some Christians who have
not yet learned not to offend grossly with their tongues. The
Scripture says that all a man's religion is in vain if he cannot
bridle his tongue; therefore one would think that those who make
any profession of godliness should quickly learn this lesson, such
a lesson that, unless learned, makes all their religion vain. But
this lesson of Christian contentment may take more time to learn,
and there are many who are learning it all the days of their lives
and yet are not proficient.

But God forbid that it should be
said of any of us concerning this lesson, as the Apostle says of
widows, in Timothy, That they were ever learning and never came to
the knowledge of the truth. Oh let us not be ever learning this
lesson of contentment and yet not come to have skill in it. You
would think it much if you had been at sea twenty years, and yet
had attained to no skill in your art of navigation; you will say,
I have used the sea twenty or thirty years and I hope I may know
by this time what concerns the sea. Oh, that you would but say so
in respect of the art of Christianity! When anything is spoken
concerning the duty of a Christian, Oh, that Christians could but
say, I have been a Christian so long, and I hope I am not wanting
in a thing that is so necessary for a Christian. Here is a
necessary lesson for a Christian, that Paul said, he had learned
in all estate therewith to be content.

Oh, do not be content with
yourselves till you have learned this lesson of Christian
contentment, and have obtained some better skill in it than
before.

Now there is in the text another
lesson, which is a hard lesson: 'I have learned to abound.' That
does not so nearly concern us at this time, because the times are
afflictive times, and there is now, more than ordinarily, an
uncertainty in all things in the world. In such times as these
are, there are few who have such an abundance that they need to be
much taught in that lesson.

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